Project XEN
by NX WORLDS
Summary: As soon as a brand-new gaming console called the XEN hits the market, a young aspiring gamer discovers a glitch in the console that literally takes anyone playing a certain game into the game world itself. Think of this as a Nintendo x Sony x Microsoft crossover with Virtual Reality without a headset story. OCs.
1. Project XEN - Cast of Characters

**Disclaimer:** The following characters and elements all belong to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Only the Original Characters belong to me.

 **Author's Note:** Here's the preview at the Game X-Over Project XEN.

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 **PROJECT XEN**

* * *

 **Story Bio** : -

 _Nothing beats a gamer's excitement like the launch of a brand-new console,_

 _But for these guys, the experience is just real… way too real._

 _And it all started when Nintendo and Sony… teamed up together?_

A _Super Smash Bros._ x _PlayStation All Stars_ x _Game Xover, featuring invited OCs, and Original Video Game Titles from the author's imagination._

xXx

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Table of content:

 **xxx My Original Characters – Final Roster xxx**

 _These are original characters created by me… except Michael. Michael is the only character belonging to Sony Corporation and the PlayStation brand, based on the Michael commercial. So I don't own him._

 **xXx**

 _The Humans_

 **-Michael Bellin** \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( _Sony_ _Playstation CM_ )

 **-Mikayla Bellin** \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( _EpicNetworks_ )  
 **-Terry "Terre" Parks** \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -( _EpicNetworks_ )  
 **-Stephan Shatt -** \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( _EpicNetworks_ )

 **-The CG Girls** (coming soon)

 **-Carrie Green** (coming soon)  
 **-Candice Gaye** (coming soon)  
 **-Chantae Gabin** (coming soon)  
 **-Sammy Griffin** (coming soon)  
 **-Jesse St. Eloi** (coming soon)  
 **-Will & Rich Hardwick **(coming soon)

 _The CG Characters_

 **-Cutie Buck - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** **\- - - - -** _(EpicNetworks)_ **  
-Ninny Claw - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** _(EpicNetworks)_ **  
-Abigail - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** _(EpicNetworks)_ ** _  
_** **-Rafael "Rafe" Rodriguez - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** **\- - - - -** _(EpicNetworks)_

 **xxx Submitted Original Characters – Final Roster xxx**

 _These are characters belonging to other readers by their approved consents. They DON'T belong to me. They are FICTIONAL. From their imaginations only, and they are NOT based on real people! Thank you readers for your submission. As of now, I no longer accept additional OCs. The rest of the spotlight will be left for the Nintendo and Sony all-stars cast, and third party._

 **xXx**

 _The Humans_

 **-Andrew Overstreet (aka Irish Redneck)** \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( _The Author of Life 1221_ )  
- **Michele Spadaccino** **-** \- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MikySP)

 _The CG Characters_

 **-** **Zeit Gott- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** ( _silvermane34_ ) **  
-Zice- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** ( _zicex235)_ **  
-Edward William Joseph Bulger (aka Capt. Ed)- - - - - - - - - - - - -** ( _The Author of Life 1221_ ) **  
-Jake Alexander - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** ( _Razorblade88_ )

 **xxx Nintendo, Sony, Xbox and 3rd Party CG Characters xxx**

- _List of Nintendo and Sony Characters appearing in this fanfic. List is tentative. Gets updated as new chapters comes in._

- **Nathan Drake** (the _Uncharted_ series)  
- **Kratos** (the _God of War_ series)  
- **Mario and Luigi** ( _Mario Bros. Arcade_ )  
- **Bayonetta** (the _Bayonetta_ series)  
- **Classic Sonic** (the Classic _Sonic the Hedgehog_ series)  
 **Aidan Pearce** ( _Watch Dogs_ )  
 _-_ **The Fat Dragon** ( _Rayman Legends_ )

 **xxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx**

 **Original Characters:**

-THE GAMERS-

MICHAEL BELLIN

 **Created by:** _Character belongs to Sony_ _PlayStation Commercial_  
 ** _Age_ : **_19_

 **Ethnicity** : White. Wisconsin-native.  
 **What they look like:** -Brown hair with front locks swept to one side. Green eyes. Triangle-shaped head. Clean shaven.

 **Character Voice Journal** ( _Updated since 10-8-2013_ ): -I'm Michael Bellin. Some of my friends call me Mike. I'm usually a nice guy. A Chicago State college student who loves video games, with FPS as my all-time fave. But I can also be a fierce competitor. Word of advice: you don't want to see my ugly side when I'm either angry or your competition. Oh and if you don't know FPS, then you're not a gamer. Unless you can prove it otherwise. But don't prove it by saying you like Nintendo.

I mean don't get me wrong, I used to love Nintendo, but nowadays the console is aimed for little kids only. And I'm no kid. Small or big. I like _some_ games in Nintendo though (okay fine, just _one_ game. Smash Bros.), but I go for the big guns, for the hardcore gaming consoles like PlayStation and/or XBOX.

Now there's this new console out called the XEN, and believe me, it's made for the big guns like me. If you ignore some of the crap they put in it. Ask my little sister that question. She can answer it for you. But you can ask me what my favorite games are in there: Call of Duty: Operation WAR, Uncharted V, and yeah… PlayStation All Stars x Super Smash Bros. Yeah, that's a real game on the XEN! Exciting, right?

Computer Sciences is my major, and my dream is to work for the company behind XEN: XEN Studios.

MIKAYLA BELLIN

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_13_

 **Ethnicity** : White Wisconsin-native  
 **What they look like:** -Light-brown, wavy-styled hair reaches behind her shoulders. Slanted brown eyes and light skin. Heart shaped face.

 **Character Voice Journal** : -Hi! I'm Michael's sister Mikayla. Whatever you do, don't listen to what my brother says about Cutie Buck. (Yeah, I know you were talking about Cutie Buck in here, bro! It's not CRAP!) Ahem! Anyway, if you wanna know, I'm the cute one in the family. And I'm also very sweet. Whatchu looking at me for? It's true!

Oh, and if you think Michael is no longer into Nintendo, think again. He still got stacked in his security box his stash of Pokémon cards and Link and Slime plushies. (…and he took them with him to college. So, shhh! Tee-hee!)

TERRY 'TERRE' PARKS

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_19_

 **Ethnicity** : African-American, Cote d'Ivoire Native  
 **What they look like:** -Brown-skin, tall height—6 feet—and heavyweight—250 pounds. Trim-cut hair, round face, and brown eyes. Plaid shirt, baggy jeans that are tight around his waist, and worn-out basketball shoes.

 **Character Voice Journal** : Hello, World! I'm Terre. There's three things I love in life: Love. Love. And GAMES! Yep. I love games. And I love my best friend too Michael. He's awesome! He's not like the fakes from back in my home country. ( _Non main, regardez-moi ces imbéciles. C'est quel genre de jeux ils aiment jouer avec moi. Avec leur grosse têtes on dirait…_ )

I don't know why, but people, even Mike, thinks I can be overdramatic. Do I look overdramatic to you?

…Wait. You say I'm overdramatic? I'm NOT! You said I was muttering and cursing some people in French? Naww, you're joking…!

STEPHAN SHATT

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_21_

 **Ethnicity** : -Asian-American, Tokyo native.  
 **What they look like** : About five feet four, lanky looking with tan skin wearing a football jacket over a white Henley, faded jeans and timberland. His dark-blond hair had a loose curl hanging before his forehead. Slanted brown eyes.

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

ANDREW OVERSTREET aka THE IRISH REDNECK

 **Created by:** _The Author of Life 1221_  
 ** _Age_ : **_18_

 **Ethnicity** : White  
 **What they look like:** Average teenage build, wears torn jeans, t-shirt & steel-capped boots. Has brownish hair with a patch of red in his beard.

 **Character Voice Journal** : Hey. My name is Andrew. I'm new here so… anyway. My favorite things in life are guns, hot chicks & things that explode. I went to a military academy a short time ago & know how to use a variety of weapons. I have a crazy cousin who occasionally makes cupcakes lased with gunpowder. Sadly, I've gained the nickname Gunpowder Cupcakes as a result.

I was born & raised in Massachusetts. The Irish part comes from my heritage, full Irish dissent. I have various sayings I like to call out at random, llike a side of French fries, holy jumping butter monkeys & IRISH CAR BOMB! I am the self-proclaimed craziest person at my school. If you mess with me, you will have to answer to my FIST!

MICHELE SPADACCINO  
 **Created by:** _MikySP_  
 **Age** : 12

 **Ethnicity** : Italian-Japanese  
 **What they look like** : Has spikey, but messey black hair. Light skin, blue eyes. Round face.

 **Character Voice Journal** : -Umm... erm... it's actually a bit embarassing to be in the journal, but... I'll try. My name is Michele Spadaccino. I'm a bit shy, b-but maybe I can attempt to get over that. About my games... well... I really like Mario games, Kirby games, but my favorite category are RPG games. I love these c-categories. And... erm, I think I may be paired with a certain Mikayla person, since I seem to be in the same school and grade as her. (Mikayla, if you're reading this, I think I may have feeling for you...)

I like to play Nintendo games, but the XEN project got me interested. I wish I could be part of the testing part, because I'd really like to see what does it feel to be in a virtual reality. But... before you can tell me that it's not for the little kids, I want to remind you that, while I may be young, I do rarely, if never, get angry or cry a lot. You could say that I'm mature, but I also like to compete in rankings in computer games.

To be honest though, I have some issues with self-confidence as I lose most of my self-confidence when someone yells madly at me, but with the help of the friends I meet in the XEN virtual reality, I may be able to get over this issue. I really don't like being yelled by peoples, so please be kind to me, okay? My short name is Miky.

THE CG GIRLS:

CARRIE GREEN

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_20_

 **Ethnicity** : White Boston-Native  
 **What they look like** : TBD

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

CANDICE GAYE

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_20_

 **Ethnicity** : African American  
 **What they look like** : -TBD.

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

CHANTAE GABIN

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_20_

 **Ethnicity** : Indian American  
 **What they look like** : -TBD.

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

SAMMY GRIFFIN

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_20_

 **Ethnicity** : Hawaiian Filipino Native  
 **What they look like:** -TBD.

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

JESSE ST. ELOI

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_19_

 **Ethnicity** : Haitian Indonesian Native  
 **What they look like:** -TBD.

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

WILL & RICH HARDWICK

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_  
 ** _Age_ : **_30_

 **Ethnicity** : French Native  
 **What they look like:** -TBD.

 **Character Voice Journal** : - _TBD_.

 **-THE CG CHARACTERS-**

CUTIE BUCK

 **Created by:** _Epic Networks_ **  
Game they appear in:** _Cutie Buck and Cutie Buck Special_  
 ** _Age_ : **_Unknown. Probably 3 years old in rabbit years_

 **Ethnicity** : Brown Lop bunny  
 **What they look like:** -CG-styled brown Lop Bunny. Concept photo is made of 2D animated art.

 **Character Voice Journal** : -Ohhhh boy… Ninny Claw is at it again! He has kidnapped by beautiful adowable giwlfwiend Abigail and I'm… well, let's just say I'm too chicken to go confwont him. But the village of wabbits is counting on me to wescue her, especially Daddy Boo the village eldew. He's Abigail's father, and my future father in law. Ohhh man… could things could get any wowse? I weally wish I had a golden cawwot to eat so that I can become mow confident y'know? But it could be anywhere acwoss the seven dimensions. I just need magic peanut seeds to open each of the seven time wawp holes, y'know what I'm saying?

…wait. You don't?

NINNY CLAW

 **Created by:** _EpicNetworks_ **  
Game they appear in:** Cutie Buck and Cutie Buck Special  
 ** _Age_ : **_Unknown. Probably 5 years old in cat years_

 **Ethnicity** : Black cat.  
 **What they look like:** -CG-styled black fat cat with green snake-like eyes and tiny ears. Concept photo is made of 2D animated art.

 **Character Voice Journal** : -Meaaaw! Haw! Haw! Haw! Haw! Ohhh who's laughing now huh, Cutie Butt? I got your girlfriend. Or should I say, your lovely _giwlfwiend_! Finally! It's about time I get the lovely daughter of the Village of Rabbits all to myself! I heard from other cats that beautiful lop bunnies like her are so delicious, even chicken can't do no deed! Yep, that's right! I can't wait to roast her! Let's see if you're gonna try and stop me, Cutie Butt! I hid all seven magic peanut seeds across all the seven Dimensions and you'll NEVER find them! Meaaaw! Haw! Haw! Haw! Haw!

And would you be so kind to STOP CALLING ME NINNY?! It's NIGEL!

ABIGAIL

 **Created by:** _EpicNetworks_ **  
Game they appear in:** Cutie Buck and Cutie Buck Special  
 ** _Age_ : **_Unknown. Probably 2 years old in rabbit years_

 **Ethnicity** : White Lop bunny.  
 **What they look like:** CG-styled white Lop Bunny. Concept photo is made of 2D animated art.

 **Character Voice Journal** : -Oh, Cutie, you've got to come and rescue me soon! Ninny is scaring me. Especially with those snake eyes of his. They're so creepy and scary. But I believe in you, Cutie. I know you will be able find the seven peanut seeds across the dimensions to rescue me. And when you do, please do bring with you your golden carrot? I also need one too. So that we can kick Ninny hard in the heinie with our powerful Bigga Buck feet together and send him flying into the stars! I'll be waiting, Cutie. *winks*

RAFAEL 'RAFE' RODRIGUEZ JR.

 **Created by:** _EpicNetworks_ **  
Game they appear in:** Call of Duty: Operation W.A.R  
 ** _Age_ : **_32_

 **Ethnicity** : Spanish-American  
 **What they look like:** -CG-styled broad-shouldered Spanish soldier in-game. Spanish-American, Spain-native outside the game.

 **Character Voice Journal** : -All right team, listen up! We're in a tough situation here. Operation W.A.R. is now in progress. Rafael Rodriguez Jr., reporting for duty! Placed in charge of this recruit team to oversee this dangerous mission. We're to stop Germany's new Nazi leader at all cost. We cannot fall back. We cannot give in. All units who are involved with the enemy and against our country shall be annihilated without mercy. But you who are for this country, we will make sure that your safety is our number one concern. Y'hear me? Never give up on this mission. The fate of the US and the world is in our hands!

ZEIT GOTT

 **Created by** : _The Silver Lion, Silvermane34_  
 **Game They Appear In** : Kid Icarus  
 **Age** : Unknown. Said to be the creator of time itself, he takes the appearance of a fifteen year old boy.

 **Ethnicity** : English  
 **What They Look Like** : Zeit is about 5'7'' in height and is usually seen wearing a silver hooded cloak that covers most of his upper body. He wears long baggy kimono pants and a baggy shirt, with sleeves longer than his own arms, of the same color and 'walks' around barefoot. His skin is pale. He has dirty blonde hair and to oddly-colored eyes: White, making them look completely blank. He only wears his hood when times look grim and when he's serious.

 **Character Voice Journal** : Hello humans! Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Zeit Gott, the god of time and an old friend of the goddess of light. Being the god of time, it's my job to make sure everything is in balance in the time stream. And let me tell, it is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGG! Honestly, I wish I could have a job like Viridi's. All I do is sit on my lazy but and watch 'T.V' and if something's wrong, I snap my fingers and fix the problem. How is that fair!? I'd even settle for Hades's job!

Oh! Sorry about that… I tend to be a bit childish… and I usually float up a few feet above the floor so I won't get my beautiful feet dirty. Of course that doesn't do any justice to my once beautiful shade of face now PALE due to being locked in this citadel for eons! Will it kill some maid to fetch me some face cream once a WHILE?!

ZICE

 **Created by** : _zice235_  
 **Game They Appear In** : Dust an Elysian Tail  
 **Age** : 17

 **Ethnicity** : English  
 **What They Look Like** : Zice is 6'2 in height he wears a glowing hooded jacket striped gloves and a mask to cover up his face and boots his fur is blue and he has brown eyes his pants are mixed color blue mixed with black

 **Character Voice Journal** : Hi there I am Zice the ice fox and a friend to dust well I am brave I never let down my friends I do what am supposed to do and that is to stop eeeeevil my ice powers give me the power to make anything but here's this when I was 7 I was a really energetic little fox I had no friends but then I bumped into a boy called dust we became best friends but then when we were playing I fell off a cliff dust failed to grab me in then I fell into the water so when that happen this I washed to this weird statue it gave me these ice powers and so I became who I am so my voice journal probably sucks.

EDWARD WILLIAM JOSEPH BULGER (aka CAPT ED)

 **Created by** : _The Author of Life, 1221_  
 **Game They Appear In** : B Force Chronicles  
 **Age** : 16

 **Ethnicity** : 1/4 Irish, Austrian, German & Norwegian (you could just say he's white).  
 **What They Look Like** : Black shirt, pants & boots with a white trench coat & a white Fedora.

 **Character Voice Journal** : He is a galactic hero with the peace keeping organization Benevolent Force.  
His main weapons are a Winchester Model 1894, a Winchester Model 1897 Trench Gun with a with bayonet lug for an M1917 bayonet, a Colt Commander Lightweight Chambering the 9x19 mm Parabellum round, a Katana & a Ninjato. He is an expert swordsman, fighter & gunman, out ranking all other characters in the game.

Also, there are a few things that also needs mentioning. First of all, I'm a southpaw, or you could say I'm left handed. I wield all my weapons as a lefty. Secondly, I'm not just a Captain in B Force, I'm the Supreme Captain and Commander of Operations. In other words, I'm a 16-year-old who is head of the largest peacekeeping organization in the Universe. I'm also one of the founders. A group of unique individuals & I formed B Force in the early days of the Fusion Incursion of 2009. It started out as a rag-tag group of heroes & reformed villains from different worlds that came together to fight a common enemy. I'll can explain more of my story if you want at a later date.

JAKE ALEXANDER

 **Created by** : _Razorblade88_  
 **Game They Appear In** : WWE Road to Wrestlemania  
 **Age** : 21

 **Ethnicity** : Caucasian  
 **What They Look Like** : Sandy blonde crew cut, Red Nike T-Shirt, Black Jeans, and white shoes.

 **Character Voice Journal** : Ok, so I hail from Miami, Florida, and am a huge pro wrestling fan. I love rock metal punk music, and junk food. My favorite junk? Pizza and Coke.

People see me all tall, tanned-up and athletic, and are all worked up on jealousy. I got some advice for ya: there's more to life than worrying about your size, which by the way, is the same as my sausage dog.

…yeah, I can be sarcastic and a smartass at times, but hey, that's good advice for someone who truly cares. Ask my friends that. It's true.

xxx


	2. Prologue: Warning!

**Disclaimer:** The following characters and elements all belong to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Only the Original Characters belong to me.

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 **PROJECT XEN**

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— **WARNING** —

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What you are about to read is a true story. By that, I mean it really, really happened. No joke. It will shock you to the very core.

Nothing beats a gamer's excitement like the launch of a brand-new console.

But for me, that experience has gotten real… _way_ too real.

It all started when two employees from both Nintendo and Sony's creative design team—and brothers in real life—have teamed up to announce their latest project to the public: the next generation of video game console.

XEN: Xtraordinary Entertainment Network

- **Michael Bellin** -

 _xxx_


	3. Chapter 1: Press Start

**Disclaimer:** The following characters and elements all belong to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Only the Original Characters belong to me and readers who submitted their own.

* * *

 **PROJECT XEN**

* * *

—Press Start—

* * *

 _- **Michael's POV-**_

 _BBWHOOOSH! Pheeew!_

 _Launch authorization received! Alarm Clock Initiated!_

 _BBWHOOOSH! Pheeew!_

I could hear the serene whooshing sound of my video game console. Once again it woke me up to yet another beautiful morning. It was the type of sound I could hear on the beach: the waves crashing and swaying, the wind dancing over the blue seas, whistling through empty seashells.

I loved my new XEN. It was a game console for the epic century.

Now the XEN was no ordinary videogame console. It was the very first Alternate Reality Game Console, rivaling past consoles like the PlayStation, the Xbox, and the Wii. It was every gamer's dream come true.

It had integrated WiFi, 3D and Ultra HD capabilities, and motion-controlled features that made it possible for the gamers to play with not only their bodies, but their minds.

I dropped both my legs out of bed and stretched out my arms, a huge yawn left out of me. I peeked at my window hidden by heavy curtains. I caught sight of the flame-colored light of the early sun. I glanced at my clock too. It was only 6AM. Usually, I should still be sleeping.

But I couldn't. Not with the XEN calling out to me, almost begging me to play it till the _next_ morning.

I put on my slippers, grabbed my burgundy nightgown—which looked a _lot_ like Hugh Hefner's housecoat— from my computer chair, and slipped my arms through the sleeves. I approached my HDTV perched at the far wall of my room, its black screen served as a blurry mirror for me. Even with the coat on, I still looked tall and lanky like Michael Jackson. At least I had buffed-up chest and abs but still… I should change my routine and go to the gym every day, _including_ weekends.

I brushed away the strands of my shaggy brown hair dangling before my groggy forest-green eyes, and sniffed.

 _Initiating Salutation..._ The female robot voice coming out of the XEN console filled the room.

 _Good morning, Player Michael. Hope you were well-rested and had a good night sleep._

A smile appeared to my lips, "Well, good morning to you too, XEN." I tore my arms up again in a stretch, letting out a sigh of great satisfaction, though my eyelids still felt heavy, "Had the best sleep ever!" I dropped my arms with a sigh, "Like a baby even!"

The XEN didn't utter a word.

"Fine," I finally said in defeat, "I only slept for two hours. But I couldn't wait that long to play you!"

 _Fair enough._ The XEN console hummed quietly. _Shall we get started?_

The console's Power On button bathed half the room floor with its faint blue glow. I couldn't force myself not to grin.

"Oh you know it."

The TV automatically turned on, and the XEN Interface flicked to view, its blinding light took out half of the darkness in the room. The desktop was of a chrome color with a shade of ivory white and swirly designs danced across the screen. And then I saw my avatar. It flickered like a hologram to the right side of the screen. And just like I was in real life, it was on-screen with its Hugh Hefner robe. Right next to my avatar to the left was a whole selection of clothes and costumes tucked in tiny black squares.

I tapped my stubby chin, as if in deep thought. Ha! Like I wasin too deep. I was faking being in deep thought. I knew exactly what I wanted to get among these array of costumes: the limited-edition Master Chief outfit from HALO X. Pronounced Ex. I had it as a special bonus when I bought the game along with my console.

"Mmm… so many selections," I teased, swiping a finger toward the TV. Immediately the outfits and black squares on the screen shifted to the left to reveal new squares of new outfits. As I kept searching for the epic HALO outfit, I said in sing-song, "What to wear... What to wear?"

Then finally, the fully-armored HALO-Style costume popped from across the screen before me. My tired face glowed at the very sight of it. The helmet, the breastplate, the machine gun… it was such a sight.

"Ha!" I almost squealed like my sister Mikayla, the annoying one. Well, actually the _only_ annoying one, "Here we go!" I tossed a fingertap, "I'll take this one."

The fully-armored costume blinked into existence, taking over my avatar's red robe, and almost immediately like magic I too was wearing that same costume. Too bad this costume change only worked via the console's Bluetooth. I'd so go to gaming conventions and show it off to the public. Cosplayers would've been _so_ jealous.

 _So, yet another gameplay round of Operation W.A.R - Calls to Arms Multiplayer Campaign, featuring guest XBOX character Master Chief?_ XEN said, her voice as sexy as ever, and not at all annoyed for my HALO taste.

"Oh, you know it!" I chirped.

My entire bedroom suddenly transformed into a wasteland. I was surrounded by thousands of troops and infantries wearing similar outfits. Bullets from all kinds of guns sped across the wasteland like a pellets shower. Zombified alien screeching ripped the darkened skies.

The adrenaline rush pumped through me like waterfall. It made my body pulse, ready to explode. Even though I knew this wasn't really real, let me tell you, I couldn't stay still. The whole place felt like the world was ending. It felt like hell.

I saw a group of three soldiers, wearing armors and carrying AK-47 rifles. Two were muscular-built and one was overweight. Their gunmetal shades blended well with the gloomy atmosphere. They were hidden behind a large overturned tank.

"Yo, Sammy! Jesse! Terre!" I shouted, running toward them with my gun gripped in my hands. The three guys saw me approach and perked up.

Enemies turned to see me run toward my friends' hiding spot. I quickly jumped and slid right under the tank to avoid being spotted, "Guys, what's the report?"

"Operation 645!" Sammy began dramatically, "Impending Alien Attack."

"These damn aliens so far have taken over three countries," Jesse added, urgency in his tone of voice. "Including the Empire of China!"

My jaws dropped. The Empire of China? How were those aliens able to take over it?

"Now they're marching toward Washington DC to seize the government stronghold!" Terre dropped his gun and grabbed me by the shoulders, "We're losing this battle as we speak, boy! As we speak!"

I pulled Terre away, "Then why are we still speaking, man?" I shouted, "Let's bombard those freaks!"

I turned and was about to sprint toward enemy fire when Jesse screamed, "Wait!" altering my move. "We should create a diversion." He explained, looking over at his comrades, "Y' know, so that we should be able to reach their airship and eliminate the general leader."

A sudden burst of violent movement cut our meeting. Another explosion had almost knocked us off balance. All five of us wheeled to see screaming soldiers flying over burst of dirt and debris. Smoke from a burnt out vehicle filled the air at a distance and more rapid-fire bullets ripped the war-infested sky.

I turned back to my friends, "I have an idea. Terre, you're coming with me." I said before jumping out of my hiding spot. Terre reluctantly followed, "Under enemy fire?!" he squealed.

I sped toward the armed enemies, dodging millions of flying bullets and missiles, while shooting at thousands of them nearby and afar. Bodies dropped. All kind of screams blended with gunfire. Screams of pain, warning, and agony. Terre reluctantly followed me, screaming and barely dodging blows. I knew this was a video game campaign but at that moment it _really_ felt like I was in a warzone.

"Watch out!" Both Sammy and Jesse cried in warning. Terre and I froze. We saw a grenade dropped right in front of us. Before we knew it a massive explosion tore the ground from under us. Heat wrapped our bodies like the sun. Fire stripped our skins. An avalanche of dirt and rocks filled our inner system like water to a glass.

I screamed, wringing in agony. Terre also screamed. My world whirled like a spinning wheel as I felt nothing but cold air and gravity sucking me in. Darkness overwhelmed my vision and before I knew it my head landed on something sharp and a nasty _split_ ringed in my ears.

xXx

BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!

My eyes flew open. My alarm clock—my REAL alarm clock—was ringing.

I shot my hand toward it and brought it down in a fist slam. The clock stopped screeching.

I rolled over to my stomach. I felt no pain, only fatigue. And annoyance. I thought I had died in that video game, falling in to this huge hole after it was created by that grenade Terre and I had stepped into. But it was all only a dream, which was the most annoying part.

But I knew this was a dream all along. Because one: the XEN was not out yet. Two: HALO was an XBOX exclusive. XEN was a console created by the merger of both Nintendo and PlayStation to take down XBOX, now a gaming giant. So there was NO freaking way that I'd get a Master Chief costume to play _Call of Duty: Operation WAR_ , unless I had _me_ an XBOX console.

Either way, I couldn't help but smile. Apart from all that rational, this was yet another AWESOME dream of the XEN console. I only wished that I was back in my fully-XEN-equipped fancy _Hugh-Hefner-style_ bedroom instead of this old dingy dorm room I call my university apartment in Chicago.

"MICHAEL, WAKE UP!"

I yelled, tumbling off my bed. I rolled over to my side, looked up and saw my sister Mikayla on my bed. Her cocoa-brown eyes glittered with amusement.

"You're gonna be late for school!" she settled her heart-shaped face on her palms, "Do YOU wanna be late for school?"

"Do you HAVE to scream like that, Mikayla?" I groaned, struggling back to my feet, "sheesh, why do you even live here?"

"Uhhh, 'cuz you had no choice?"

I let out a regretful groan. A cold breeze inside the room made me realize I was only in my faded blue boxers. And Mikayla saw me in it. And she was fully dressed in a mint halter and white jeans. Even for a 13-year old, she was dressed like a Kardashian.

If only my parents would stop taking business trips for once and just sit on their own home porches like old people their ages do, I wouldn't have to deal with my annoying vindictive little adopted sister. Let alone being almost naked before her. Yeah, that's true that I had no choice but to take care of her, at the expense of my only independence I was having called college: the only gap between the dreaded high school days and the drearier days of marriage. Also known as freedom.

"Were you dreaming about that XEN again?" Mikayla circled a finger over my lips, "'cuz you drooling."

I quickly wiped the discharge off the corner of my lips, "Oh, how fantastic... you saw that?"

"Bro, I saw it from a distance." She said, pulling out of the bed, her light brown hair lively bounced with her movement.

I sighed. She was only 13-year old; what does she know about the XEN except for the fact that her favorite video game was going to be in it? The most annoying baby children video game of all: Cutie Buck. Also a launch title. _Ugh._

"The XEN is like the hottest video game console to date." I began. I almost sounded like a preacher there, "So why not get excited about it once a while? Or twice a while? Or so close to release date which is _tomorrow_?" I quickly cut in when her lips parted to respond, "And no, it's not all about frigging _Cutie Buck_."

Her mouth remain open and no words came out of it.

"Yeah that's right, I said frigging." I went to my computer desk to grab my battered cell phone and faded wallet, few coins dropped from its slit opening.

"I can smell the anticipation." Mikayla sing-sung before she went ahead and scooped up my clothes off the floor and my backpack still containing my college books, "Now get dressed," she shoved them down to my arms, "get breakfast, and off you go!" she twirled me in place and shoved me toward the door, out of the room.

"Wait!" I tried to resist as Mikayla rolled me down the hallway toward the staircase, "I didn't brush my teeth yet!"

Mikayla pulled out a pack of _Dentyne Ice_ from her jeans back pocket, "You'll do fine." she slapped it on top of the backpack and then proceeded to shove me down the stairs. I didn't catch my balance in time and I propelled down the flight of stairs. My clothes descended like confetti, and books and papers cascaded the air to the heavy wooden steps. Mikayla flinched like she just saw a squirrel get road-killed.

"I'm okay..." I groaned after almost a minute of quiet.

xXx

Students and faculties filled the college park, cutting across the park pavement, speeding toward different kind of buildings as they all try to beat the clock to their next college class.

I however took this free time I had on hand for a stroll under the warm glistening sun.

According to the latest weather forecast, today was the last day Chicago will have a 75 degree temp before the skin-piercing cold and the howling wind of the fall hit the Windy City. Already a few trees have lost their leaves.

So the stroll was perfect, especially when it had a purpose: a stroll toward my next destination: the Campus Quad, where demos of the XEN console was to be presented to gamers and the curious across campus.

"Yo Mike!"

I heard a deep cheerful voice. Already expecting who it was, I turned around and cried out in glee, "Terre!"

"Is that you boy? What's uuuuup?"

Terre, my best friend from the Ivory Coast, pounced me with a bro hug. He wrapped my arms around my back and swung me violently like I was a teddy bear.

I grunted. I could have sworn I heard my back split. Terre—also known as Terry Parks—was this large ball of love I was proud to call my best friend. Despite his overweight Snorlax-like figure—he always had that reputation to show me some love.

But then again, I couldn't tell him no because his big size came with a big heart. And with every big heart came a big sensitivity. If I don't give him an objection soon, I might not have a spine by Thanksgiving.

Terre set me down, "Hey, wanna buy you a drink?"

I shifted uncomfortably, "…right now I want you to buy me a back stretcher… I think you did some damage to my spinal cord."

Terre laughed, throwing a dismissive hand, "Oh, it's nothing pal!" He then swung a heavy friendly slap on my back again. A blast of breath shot out of me as I almost tripped over.

"Sooo...? How is your day going?" Terre asked with a knowing look, "Anything new?"

I glanced over to him. I recognized that look. That's the 'You won't believe what kind of game is out now!' look. The look of glee and excitement, like a child under the Christmas tree on Christmas Day.

I returned the smile, more broadly and showy, "Oh you know it!"

We slapped hands repeatedly, roaring with excitement.

"I can't believe the XEN is coming out tomorrow!" I gushed, "And what's better than a release date approaching?"

"A live game console demo on campus!" Terre howled like a football fan who just saw his team score the winning goal. "And the best part is whoever wins the competition wins their very first unit!"

My cheery cheeks turned pink just at the thought of it. I couldn't _wait_ to see the XEN truck at the Campus Quad, showing off their latest and greatest XEN console, including all the hottest new XEN launch titles, including _SSBxPSA_. Also known as _Super Smash Bros_. x _PlayStation AllStars_.

Now that game is epic. Not only do you play with characters from the Nintendo world and the ones from Sony, you can also pose as them and fight using their powers in an alternate reality versions of their worlds too. Thanks to the technology of the XEN Gaming Gloves and Gaming Glasses.

"Remember when they announced _SSBxPSA_ at E3 this year?" I asked Terre, the memory still fresh and electrifying in my mind, "That news was so shocking I thought _Nintendo_ and _Sony_ fanboys would have a revolution!"

Terre guffawed at the very memory of it, "A bold move man! I thought I'd have a heart attack when Rich and Will Hardwick showed us the trailer and announced the release date!"

"Buddy, you'd have a heart attack any day even when your pants split." A deep yet Justin-Bieber-sounding voice interrupted the conversation. Terre's eyes narrowed to a thin slit, growling under his breath. I immediately knew who that person was that made Terre look like he was ready to punch someone.

I looked before me and there he was, smirking from ear to ear. He was about five feet four, lanky looking with tan skin wearing a football jacket over a white Henley, faded jeans and timberlands. His dark-blond hair had a loose curl hanging before his forehead. His slanted brown eyes looked like he knew the direction down the Highway to Hell.

"Hello… Mickey Mouse." He called me. He _always_ called me by that name. But this time I didn't retaliate. A mocking smile curled over my lips.

"Well, if it isn't Stefan _Shit._ "

Terre broke into a laugh, "Oh, good one, Mike!" he slapped my back again. I almost tipped over. He _really_ need to stop doing that.

The smile vanished from Stefan, "It's _Shatt,_ you idiotic douche."

I shrugged, "You'll always be a piece of turd to me."

"Mock all you want." Stefan's voice now came out a warning. "I'm on my way to the XEN demo party on campus too," his deep brown eyes studied his two enemies, "and when I do, I'll win this competition. And we both know what happens to me when I get involved in competitions, right?"

"Uhh… you lose?" Terre said confidently, but I was doubtful. Knowing Stefan, he always had a foolproof way of winning video game competitions. He was a natural at it, like he was the frigging biological son of Lady Luck.

It's one thing that he had a jock face and a winning smile that would rob girls' hearts back in high school, even all the girlfriends I used to have. But to make the attempt to rob me off my winning XEN console? That I would not tolerate.

"You know what," I said, feeling the venom settling on my tongue tip, "We're gonna win this competition. And we're going to get our first XEN unit before you even reach the end of the line."

"Not if I pry it from your stubby nerdy fingers first!" He stepped up close to me, "I once took a _Sega Game Gear_ portable from my brother by beating him up with it. So I'd watch my back if I were you."

And with those words, he walked away and was gone. I could feel anger churning in my stomach. Terre placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, "Don't worry about that kid, dude. We're gonna win that console."

"Not when we _get_ to the end of the line _first!_ " I grunted. "Come on man! Let's go!" I stomped off. Terre followed me, sensing the angry tone in my voice.

"Go? To our next class?" he asked nervously, already guessing the answer had nothing to do with class and I was already a distance away from him. That alone should let him confirm what was on my mind.

xXx

Terre and I finally reached the campus quad. The quad was large and spacious and its ground was filled with freshly cut grass, dotted with gazebos, where students—in groups or alone—were either studying or chilling out with each other's company. But the majority of these students couldn't help but gear their attention toward the large crowd of students stretching out to a large gazebo occupied by three large black trucks and a tour bus with the XEN logo on its side: a large silver X with wings on its side, encircled by a ring with stars on it. It almost looked like some secret agent insignia.

A satellite was perched at the very top of the tour bus. Large TV screens displaying HD gameplays of various XEN games surrounded the large gazebo. Packs of students hoarded each TV screen we could find.

There were also two pergolas with flailing white fabric as their ceilings next to the large tour bus. To the left was where a long line of students formed to sign up for the newsletter and the prizes. To the right side were the prizes themselves, displayed at a table: XEN t-shirts and hats, XEN keychains and wallets, even game cases.

But farther from these prizes were the glorious grand-prizes: the XEN console itself. They were three units of them on display, temptingly up for grabs.

"Dang, look at this huge crowd of students." Terre gushed.

I stood on my toes, glancing around the crowded quad. While most students on campus were about six to seven feet, I was only five feet ten. My best friend was four inches taller, very well at the six foot range.

"I don't see him anywhere." He said, turning to Terre, "Do you see him?"

"I really don't give a shit for someone who goes by the name of Shit."

"Are you guys talking about Shit again?" a voice entered our conversation. I knew that voice. It was the voice of an angel. Or at least that's what I thought it was until it dawned on me that angels aren't supposed to curse. Well, in my opinion of course.

Terre and I turned to face her and her two best friends. The girl who just spoke was blonde. Her hair, styled in a wavy bounce and her form was slender and glowed like that of a goddess.

And her friends… they were twice as beautiful. Bombshells! Her first friend to the left had lighter brown skin and also wavy jet-black hair with gold highlights at the split ends. The second one had darker skin, slanted brown eyes and bob-style haircut of ruby shade color.

The girls except the black girl with the golden highlights were about the same height as me. The golden highlights one was taller than Terre and appeared more professional. Her body was like that of a WWE Diva, and I couldn't stop staring at her, 'cuz she was hot.

"Hey-Heey!" Terre laughed, "Well if it isn't the CG girls! Carrie Green, Chantae Gavin, and Candice Gaye!"

"Hi, Candice." I grinned, my face literally turned pink at the sight of the WWE Diva girl Candice.

"Hi, Mike!" she greeted me sweetly, "Are you gonna sign up for the tournament?"

It took me a moment to snap out of my trance. "Oh! You mean the one where I get to win the XEN console?" I cleared my throat and stretched out my back confidently, "Oh yeaah. Suuure."

Yeah, that was lame; but I wanted to show myself tough in front of Candice. Heck, I wanted to show myself tough in front of the CG Girls! Could there be any other reasons why Terre and I shouldn't call them the CG Girls? Apart from the fact that their first and last names each starts with the same respective letters? CG?

"He'll do anything for you, CG Girls." Terre said, "Even going through a tournament where he gets to eat live pythons."

The girls frowned at that actual image. Even I frowned at that image. Wrestling snakes was one thing, but EATING them?

"Guys, seriously. What's with your disgusting sense of humor?" Carrie complained, "And I'd appreciate it if you'd stop calling us CG Girls. We're not even into gaming anyway."

"Yeah, it's as stupid as what you guys like to do, like football and wrestling and shooting." Chantae added.

A couple of students, mostly guys in the campus, overheard them and let out collective groans of disagreement and distasteful growls. I gotta admit, Chantae's comment was uncool to me, even if she was one of my friends.

I glanced away when I caught a glimpse of a tall dude from amongst the crowd from one corner of my eye. He looked eerily familiar. Brown jacket over a white wool coat, dark-blue jeans and brown boots. He even had a mask covering his nose and a black hat! And I don't know if I was hallucinating, but he held a smartphone on one hand and something black and metallic gripped by the other—a Beretta pistol!

The world spun before me like I was about to pass out. I looked away and took a heavy gasp. I managed to regain my composure and did a double take. The man was gone.

"Hey Mike!"

I jumped, feeling my heart pound on my chest. It was Terre who called me, "What?" I gasped.

"Dude, you're okay?"

I felt something clogged in my throat. I managed to swallow it out, "I'm…I'm fine." I forced a smile, "Don't worry about it."

I decided to look ahead, searching for distraction. Then I noticed two men step onto the large podium. I immediately recognized them: 30-year old. Twins. Fraternal twins as I'd recall. One had brown hair, and the other dyed his hair blond. It was the famous Will and Rich Hardwick, co-founders of XEN.

"Hey, check out those guys!" I pointed at them and Terre and the CG Girls, and pretty much the entire crowd, turned their attention toward the climbing game developers. Better these guys get all the attention for creating an awesome game console than me who was seeing things, right?

"Welcome all," the brown hair dude said, "To the happiest place on Earth."

"And no, he's not talking about _DisneyWorld_." The blond twin interrupted, "He's talking about…" he flashed his palms as if in Jazz-hands position, "…XEN!"

The crowd cheered and applauded. Once the crowd settled, the brown haired dude went on, adjusting his white vest over his sky blue dress shirt.

"XEN," he began, arms spread out wide, "is also known as Xtraordinary Entertainment Network. It is not just any video game console in this new generation of gaming. It is a portal that opens up to you, to an incredible gaming journey across immersive new worlds and allows you to become the hero of your own epic…"

"Yes-yes. Your own epicness." The blond guy pushed his twin aside and stepped forward, "In a way, the XEN offers you dynamic gaming with flawless social interaction and real-time events straight from your game worlds. With the XEN Gaming Glasses and the Gaming Gloves, you'll have access to full-motion capture and artificial intelligence features that enable you to experience gaming and entertainment as if this is real life."

"Yeah, and—!"

The blond guy cut his bro off, "And also, you get to share all of your epic moments!" he pulled from out of his white matching vest over his hot pink plaid shirt the XEN controller, "With just a press of the button from the XEN controller," he pointed at the XEN button resting in the middle of the controller, "you can post videos and photos of gameplay on XEN Social."

"And—!"

"Annnd! You can even use your smartphones and tablets as extra controllers to improve gameplay. All you gotta do is to connect the XEN app into your console and you can play with friends and family all over the internet with your tablets and smartphones devices!"

"Rich!" the brown-haired guy barked, his face turning red. "Do you _ever_ stop talking?"

"What?" Rich shrugged, "I'm just sharing the beautiful features the XEN console has to offer. It's good for marketing, Will."

"No it's good for you because you love the spotlight."

Rich pulled out a haughty smile, "I know right?"

Will and Rich Hardwick, co-creators of the XEN console. Ironically in the past they've worked for two companies who were once harsh competitors: Nintendo and Sony. But with the rise of higher technology brought by its competitor XBOX, the console war shifted gear, and Nintendo and Sony did the unthinkable by joining forces and bringing the XEN console to life, thanks to the creative minds of these twins.

"Anyway," Will went on, "We have so many XEN games here on this quad for you to try out, and we have contests to hold out and prizes to give away in just a few minutes, so how about you guys have some real fun?"

More cheering and whooping. The crowd was about to disperse when Stefan called me out from the sea of people.

"How about we have some fun now?" he said. All eyes, all heads, all bodies automatically shifted toward him and it was easy to spot him like the spotlight has dropped itself on him.

"Oh?" was all Will Hardwick could say.

Stefan's grin widen, "Yeah." He craned his neck toward me and said, "How about we have our first competition right now?" he drew a finger toward me, "I challenge you, Michael Bellin! Winner takes all. Loser crawls to Mommy."

The crowd oohed.

"You pick." Stefan said, already closing in toward me. What could I say? I loved a challenge. Especially one where I get to choose where the battle should take place.

"How about an _SSBxPSA_ match." I proposed.

Stefan scoffed, "Too kiddy. We want something that is for serious gamers."

The crowd howled with mockery. Too kiddy? I seriously was about to draw a punch and send him flying across the trees for saying that I was not a serious gamer. But instead, I came up with a better comeback. Or that's what I thought it was.

"If you were a serious gamer, you would take on the challenge." I paused, "…unless, you were born an uber noob, then I guess we should declare a winner right now."

Hilarity exploded from the crowd. Twice as loud. Stefan's face became hard.

"All right, funny guy." Stefan said, stepping right up close to me that I could take a whiff of his repulsive onion and garlic breath, "Wanna play hardball Battle Royale? It's on."

I pulled away, wrinkling my nose, "Oh it's on all right. Like your breath. What, you're trying to keep the vampire bats away from their home cave in there or what?"

More laughter from the audience. Man, I was on fire. Stefan continued staring down at me even though he had backed away.

One of the big screen TV by the gazebo was open for our matchup. The staffs dismissed some students who were playing some other game in there and popped in the demo of _SSBxPSA_ on it. They cleaned out the large sofa and the coffee table by the TV and escorted us all to our seats.

"So!" Rich exclaimed, "How would you like to battle? Gamer-style, or XEN Gamer-style?"

Both Stefan and I exchanged knowing looks. It was pretty much clear how we wanted to play this game.

"XEN Gamer-style!" we shouted together, and immediately, hostesses in black leather jumpsuits came out of the blue and handed out to us on silver platters Bluetooth gaming headsets and the famous XEN Gaming Glasses and Gaming Gloves. Like Will and Rich said—more Rich than Will—the glasses allowed your vision to be plunged into the gaming world of XEN and the gloves allowed you to interact with it by touch. It was like being there, so they said.

I slipped on my gloves and snapped on my glasses. Immediately, I was no longer at the campus quad. I was inside a grid. The space was wide and royal blue, and the space around me—the walls, ceiling and floor—were all crisscrossed with bright blue lines that formed squares intersecting each other. The experience was amazing!

"All right, _Mike720_ and _KitsuneBoy180_! Are you all ready?"

Stefan and I glared at each other, fully determined to punch each other out. "READY!" we shouted.

Holographic screens filled up a large part of the grid before me and Stefan. It displayed pictures of stages confirmed for the SSBxPSA game. I saw the world of Hyrule: a large island surrounded by a majestic body of water with a large castle right in the middle.

I reached out and pressed on the picture. Stefan did the same on his screen. The screens vanished and a large _Now Loading_ fonts scrolled out before us.

Then like magic, the grid around us changed again. Stefan vanished in pixels and I found myself standing over a hilltop, overlooking a sea of trees dotted by mountain peaks. The rushing wind of the ocean tore through my clothes as I stood there, watching the vast blanket of shiny blue spread across every corner of the mountains and vast forest.

I knew that place very well. This was the land of Hyrule.

"Whoa…"

 **xxx**

 _So here's how the gameplay of SSBxPSA looked like. In every match up, we players took on the form of our avatar: clean crisp high definition CG version of ourselves, captured by wildly advanced camera technology from our own selves. My avatar name's was Mike720 and Stefan's name was KitsuneBoy180. Our avatars met in any stages we picked by a random drawing algorithm. Hyrule, from the Legend of Zelda game, was the stage I have picked._

 _Once the stages were set, our avatars went into battle. The left gaming glove in the SSBxPSA universe took the form of something called a gaming gauntlet. It was a holographic gauntlet that wrapped around the forearm and extended to the fingers of our gloves. We used it to either take on the powers of one of the many colorful characters from the Smash Bros. series, or the Playstation All-stars one, OR we used it to summon these characters to the battlefield ourselves. The role of the game was to KO our opponent's avatar as many times as we could, Smash-style. That means I get to KO Shatt, or he get to KO me._

 _The end game can be done Smash-style also. Either by timer, or by stock. Stefan and I decided to make a timer match-up, and go for the Instakill, which is kinda like Sudden Death in this game._

 _I could hear the crowd scream wildly as we took positions. I heard Rich shout out loud._

 _"Aaaaall right ladies and gentlemen. En position! You are about to observe our very first XEN match-up LIVE at the Chicago State University XEN Campus Quad! This is going to be the best show yet!"_

 _Hearing Rich shout like that made me feel like I was inside a football game. And Shatt and I were the players. Speaking of Shatt, where was he?_

 _Who cared! Being in that game world felt so EPIC! Epic to the point that I reached a finger over to my gauntlet and pressed a button. My ragged sweatshirt and faded jeans instantly disappeared, replaced so quickly by a new outfit that no one could see my boxers. My new outfit—the iconic Link ensemble: green hat and tunic over a white undershirt, leggings and brown boots._

 _I glanced over my gauntlet and pressed another button. A bow and a quill of arrows digitally appeared strapped behind my back in a waterfall of pixels and lights. I marched down the unruffled plane of the mountain, whistling the folksy Zelda tune._

 _He reached down a distance when KitsuneBoy180 pulled out of hiding behind a tree and pressed a button on his gauntlet. His face formed a mask of dark intent just as his entire faded shirt and worn jeans ensemble were reduced to tiny speaks of pixels, immediately replacing his skin over to war man outfit: green tee with dog tag around the neck, camo jeans, and combats boots._

 _I froze, wild-eyed. I knew what was coming but I couldn't take a single step, let alone twitch._

 _KitsuneBoy180 raised his arms up and an AK-47 morphed over his grasp._

 _KitsuneBoy180 pulled the trigger. I jumped behind a bush. A shower of bullets ripped through the bushes, slicing leaves and tearing through my skin. Pixel bits spilled off me like blood and before I knew it there was darkness._

The crowd cheered. I pulled my glasses off and was back at the university quad. I glanced over to see a few strangers high-fiving a gloating Stefan who had already removed his glasses too. I sighed gruffly, glaring at him like murder was in my mind. Not a strong start.

"Well what do you know, Mickey Mouse!" Stefan mocked, "You got powned by the Master Chief!"

I was about to tell him that Master Chief was an XBOX guy but instead I said, "Master Shit is more like it."

More laughter filled the quad. Stefan darkly scowled. "All right, if you wanna play it THAT way, bring it!"

Stefan plugged his glasses back on and faced the TV screen again.

"Come on, Michael!" Terre shouted for me. "Crush him!"

I didn't hesitate. I plugged my glasses back on also.

 _I dropped from a floating platform and back to the Hyrule Field. I was no longer Link. I was now Nathan Drake from Uncharted. A dessert Eagle gripped on one hand and a rifle strapped on my back, I ran down a ragged hiking trail, pushing through branches and bushes and leaping over thorns and vines. I tore through a sharp turn when the forest-rows of maples and oaks-towered before me, blocking out the sun._

 _Now I couldn't see much, and my anxiety was getting high. What if Shatt—oops, KitsuneBoy180—caught me again?_

 _"Yo, Mickey!"_

 _I stopped, skidding to a stop on my feet. I almost tripped as I was turning around to KitsuneBoy180's direction. He was now on a large black bird with a golden head, coming full-force at me. KitsuneBoy180 himself-I thought I was seeing things-had a red wavy-style wig! Who was he supposed to be? Naruko on top of the Raven Lord from Heavenly Sword?_

 _KitsuneBoy180 pulled out from behind him a lance and leveled its sharp end for my chest, laughing maniacally._

 _A spike of terror shot through me at the lance's sight. So much that I couldn't move. I had to defend myself. I leveled my pistol in the air and fired. The bird swerved back, but no damage. It came full force at me. I screamed._

 _By the time I could move, I turned around to flee but the bird swept past me, its talons pressed hard on my shoulders. Before I knew it I was kicking and screaming without realizing that I was being carried off my feet, literally._

 _"So much for Instakill huh Mickey!" KitsuneBoy180 mocked._

 _"It's Mike720!" I shouted. "And put me down or I'm putting a bullet to your brain!"_

 _"Try me!" KitsuneBoy180 provoked. Before I could even react again, I felt a whack on my hand. The gun left my grasp and plummeted 50 feet off to the ground. I yelped, watching the drop. It took 12 seconds for the weapon to hit ground. Dang, it was a long drop!_

 _KitsuneBoy180's bird uncurled his talons and next thing I knew I saw myself plunging to the last 12-second of my life._

 _Before I even hit the ground, before I felt excruciating pain and shattering of bones in my body…_

I snatched the gaming glasses away from my face and before I saw darkness again I was back at the quad. The crowd couldn't stop laughing.

"Hey, that's not funny! It was real!" I screamed.

Stefan removed his glasses and stared hauntingly at me, "You're right Mickey," he mocked, "you being a loser just got real."

The crowd laughed some more.

"You ffffff—!" I tried retaining my cursed tongue. And believe me, it was NOT easy!

"Fine!" I hissed and strapped my gaming glasses back on.

"It's over man." Stefan chuckled.

"Not unless I skin you alive and cocktail roast you on a spit!" I hissed.

xxx

 _The next place I ended up in now was the middle of a highway. I looked around, frantically searching for KitsuneBoy180. He could pop in any minute. I was no longer Nathan Drake. I was now Jak, from the Jak and Daxter series. No Daxter on my shoulder though._

 _As I took a step down the wilderness, something clicked in my mind. It began forming. It was an idea. And my lopsided smile formed along. Good thing Daxter wasn't with me to annoy me. The plan in my head would have been ruined._

 _The best part about this game SSBxPSA, was that with the Gaming Gloves you not only had the power to summon Nintendo and Sony characters at will to help you, you could also summon objects from their games, including 3rd party games also. But that would require downloadable content—DLC._

 _I knew exactly what to summon. I didn't know if it was announced as a DLC though, but it was worth trying._

 _My glove turned to the gaming gauntlet again and I pressed a button. The image of a hot red Ferrari from the latest Forza Motorsport game shimmered into existence._

 _I pressed another button on my gauntlet again and summoned the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device from the game Portal, aka the Portal Gun. I pulled the trigger, shot under me then shot behind a heavy bush. I jumped into the hole I made, and reappeared on the other side behind the bush._

 _I lay in wait. Finally I saw him, KitsuneBoy180, this time in his Call of Duty outfit, searching for me. Yeah, the costume is apparently a DLC in the game you can summon. Announced since E3._

KitsuneBoy180 lowered his weapon as his gaze fell on the bright red car, "Whoa!" he breathed, "Sweet ride!" he jumped into the car and reached for his seatbelt, but too late.

 _A zoooommpsh sound drew behind his ear. He looked back and watched the seatbelt wrap around him. It clicked beside him. His face flushed blue like a ghost. "Uh-oh."_

The Ferrari started by itself and suddenly took off at high-speed, its tires sharply grazed through the highway.

I could hear KitsuneBoy180 scream as the Ferrari went straight into a strange city full of stunt obstacles. I wanted to hear him scream some more.

 _I pulled out my Portal gun and shot two more holes: one up the sky and another one right next to me. I jumped on the hole next to me, only to be vomited out of the portal I shot from the sky._

 _Next thing I knew I was dropping a thousand feet toward hard concrete; the wind pummeled my face as it happened. I knew this was a game and I'd come back to life no matter what happened. But the fear I felt right now was so cold and chilling, the wind made it worse._

 _I finally spotted the Ferrari, heading toward a city. I shifted my fall toward it as I pulled out my Portal gun and shot at the car's roof._

 _I crossed through the roof and plumped right next to KitsuneBoy180. KitsuneBoy180 jumped, his eyes widened in panic._

 _"Hi there!" I pulled out a snide smile._

 _"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" KitsuneBoy180 screamed._

 _"Making your life miserable! What do you think?"_

 _The Ferrari barely zipped past trucks, swerved city trains, and barely missed pedestrians. The Ferrari then reached a dense forest and before we knew it, a swirl of red and blue light blindly flashed across my eyes. Then the scream of sirens caught our attention. The cops were now hot on our trail!_

"Cops is onto us." screamed KitsuneBoy180 before turning to me, "What are you trying to pull here, Mickey?"

 _I shrugged, "Nothing. Just having fun with our game."_

 _KitsuneBoy180 pressed on the gas and the Ferrari took off in a flash. The pursuing cops followed in a flash as well._

Mueeh! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! We heard clown laughing.

 _We looked over our shoulders and we saw the Psycho clowns from Twisted Metal right besides us, following us in FOUR TRUCKS! They laughed maniacally._

 _"Twisted Metal?" KitsuneBoy180 turned to me with bulged eyes, "You summoned these twisted clowns here?"_

 _"All right fine. You caught me. I'm not just playing the game. I wanna KO you. Just like you KOed me."_

 _I could see KitsuneBoy180's nostrils flared. His sweaty hands gripped tight on the wheel as he pulled to one side. The Ferrari swerved into a tight alleyway._

 _"Dude, what are you doing? You just entered the Retro Alley!"_

 _"What?" KitsuneBoy180 yelped. Suppressing his panicked voice proved impossible for KitsuneBoy180._

 _"You're gonna run over the Retro Mario and his Retro Koopas."_

 _"I don't wanna run into anything retro!" KitsuneBoy180 screamed, and I couldn't blame him. Running over the Retro characters were like penalties, costing a player many points. And that was my goal: to cost KitsuneBoy180 many points and put him under pressure, enough to KO him._

 _Manholes exploded before us, their lids flew into the sky and Retro Mario and Retro Koopas—all shaped in 8-bit NES style—shot out of the hole as if they were confetti._

 _KitsuneBoy180 yanked the Ferrari out of the way, but one of the twisted clown trucks sneaked past it and smashed on its side. KitsuneBoy180 lost control. He fell off the car but quickly grabbed on the car's bumper. He wailed in agony as the Ferrari dragged him down the road._

 _I seized control of the Ferrari. I zipped and swerved, brushing past the pixelated retro characters. Some I had no choice but to run over._

 _One of the clowns from his truck raised up a chainsaw and turned it on. He moved the chainsaw closer to KitsuneBoy180, laughing maniacally. KitsuneBoy180 bawled. He struggled to his feet but the road flew past under him so fast he had trouble keeping his footing in place._

 _The clown dropped his chainsaw just as KitsuneBoy180 climbed over the Ferrari and dove into the hole of the Ferrari's rooftop._

 _"GET OUT OF THE CAR, NOW!" KitsuneBoy180 roared._

 _I would have argued. I could have told him that I'll get out of the car and he'll take control of the wheel only if he let me win this round in exchange for all the points he lost._

 _"Okay." I said casually, as we were heading toward a rock solid wall. I pulled out my Portal gun, shot on the wall and jumped out of the car. The Ferrari leapt into the portal, with KitsuneBoy180 screaming into it. The Twisted Metal truck followed. What happened next, you don't want to know; but I felt compel to share._

 _The Ferrari shot out from another portal. And that last portal I had created was from above. The car shot out of that hole and was plummeting a thousand feet. The Twisted Metal truck followed behind. I could hear KitsuneBoy180 and the clowns pursuing him screaming as they were plunging to their deaths._

xxx

I pulled off my gaming glasses again and this time the sound I heard was true music. The crowd was actually cheering for me and not for Shatt. Terre and the CG girls ran toward me and pinned me with hugs. I hugged them back. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I finally won a XEN console!

I stepped in front of Shatt and stuck my tongue out, "Take that, sucker!" I gloated.

Shatt forced a smirk, wrinkles creased his nose, "Congratulations." He pulled out his gaming gloves and glasses and dropped them on the couch. He turned on his heels and walked away.

I watched him, unable to keep my gloating smile down as my friends and the crowd hurdled around me. I couldn't believe it myself. Beating Shatt at a XEN game wasn't just the highlight of my day. I got a brand-new XEN as a reward for it.

Will and Rich approached me. Will carried with him a XEN box strapped to one hand, "Congratulations, err…" he drawled.

"It's Michael. I usually go by Mike too."

Will smiled broadly, "Mike." He said before handing me the console box, "This is for you. Your very own XEN console, bundled with _Super Smash Bros. x PlayStation AllStars – Gamer Battle_ edition. Enjoy."

I took the console box and glanced at its cover. It had on its sleek XEN console of a white-eggshell color and looked like a 22nd century modern tower, a controller very similar to a PlayStation controller except for the buttons that had the traditional ABXY and a XEN button right in the middle, the XEN gaming glasses and gaming gloves—both look sleek in jet black sport-shape with royal blue shades and leather with glowing buttons respectively, and the glorious picture of a gamer avatar surrounded by all Nintendo and Sony characters posing for battle behind him. Believe me, just holding this box was like finding gold. A treasure it felt. A treasure it was.

I giddily chuckled at Will, "Oh trust me man. I will definitely enjoy it."

xXx

"I am NOT enjoying this!" I was literally screaming at the TV screen, finger repeatedly tapping on my TV remote, "Why is that console not turning on, man?"

5 hours have passed and I thought I had everything under control: a new XEN console with its content inside, a large TV screen at the living room of my dorm, and of course popcorn and sodas. And let's not forget headset for multiplayer goodness with _Call of Duty: Operation WAR_ , which my girl Carrie, the sweetest of the CG girls, just bought for us.

But the experience right now was less enjoyable. The TV was on and the console was on—heck, I was staring at the glowing blue light on the console AND my controller AND listening to the ventilating sound of the system humming sweet nothing to my ears—but I couldn't get the XEN game image to pop out of my TV screen.

My friends were there: Terre and the CG girls. And they looked pretty pooped on the couches and sofa they laid on. It _has_ been a long day. So long that day it was that I felt panic welling up inside me. I didn't even get started on my class homework due tomorrow. Even if it was a one-page paper about myself.

"Maybe you need an RGB Cable." Chantae suggested.

I turned to Chantae with a frustrated stare, "We already have an HDMI cable. So why would I need an RGB one?"

"You got rid of it did you?" she asked.

My shoulders dropped, "Yes."

Chantae tossed her arms in the air as the CG girls groaned together, expressing their frustration. Terre pulled out of his chair and approached me, giving me a pat on the shoulder.

"Michael." He said and I let out a huff through my nose. Every time he called me that, it meant one thing.

"I think it time for us to shut down."

My heart dropped, "What? No…" I moaned but Terre didn't care what I felt. He went on with the lecture, "But you need to get some sleep. We _all_ need to get some sleep."

"Sleep, my foot. It's not even 11 o'clock yet!"

Carrie cleared her throat to catch my attention. I turned around and noticed her pointing at the clock on the wall. It was 2 o'clock.

"Oh."

The girls pulled out of their seats and headed for the front door. Even Terre was heading out and I couldn't do much to stop him. Before I could object, my sister Mikayla came in from her bedroom.

"I'm going to have to agree with my CG Girlfriends here." She said. The three girls pivoted, grumbling under their breaths. They truly _hated_ that nickname.

"See. If we get some good night sleep and wake up super-early tomorrow, we'll have a mind sharp enough to take that XEN console to a better TV screen." A smile crept up to her face, " _My_ TV screen. And its remote control is universal and should be able to play the XEN smoothly, with better graphics. And you won't have complications with the Input features in it."

Terre and the CG girls glanced at each other. I noticed skepticism in their eyes. I didn't blame them. I was skeptical too.

"And what's the catch?" I asked her.

"You buy me _Cutie Buck Special_."

I let out a snort, "Ain't gonna happen." I pivoted to face my friends. They'll totally agree with me on that joke. But they weren't laughing. They weren't serious either. They gave me this look I couldn't BELIEVE they've been reduced to: the puppy dog look. With pushed shoulders, doe-eyes, and the lower lip all sticking out of place. The whole package.

"Wha—Oh… Ohhh, come ohhnn. Not the look! Not the puppy dog lo—!"

Mikayla's puppy dog face totally knocked the protest out of my mouth. I couldn't argue anymore.

"All right fine. Tomorrow, we'll have the XEN console installed to Mikayla's room and then I'll…" I paused, having difficulty trying to say the words, "…I'll…"

Mikayla, Terre, and the CG girls all leaned toward me, waiting in anticipation. I finally managed to break, "…I'll buy _Cutie Buck Special_."

The girls and Terre let out a burst of relief while Mikayla let out a burst of joy.

"See?" Mikayla said, "Wasn't that so hard to say?"

xXx

Couple of hours later and everyone has retired for bed. My sister Mikayla would start school tomorrow early in the morning. Since she now lived with me, her private school in Wisconsin transferred her to an all-girl school somewhere in Chicago. I was supposed to drop her off there but luckily Carrie and her CG best friends decided to volunteer. Apparently they wanted to get to know her better, which was good enough for me.

So I never got the chance to get my TV fixed. I stayed for another hour and tried troubleshooting it. I even looked over the Internet on ways to display the image of my XEN console on the screen through _Yahoo! Answers,_ forums and even went to the TV website.

No cigar. And not even close.

I finally gave up. I turned off my TV and unplugged my new console, arranging the HDMI cord, the wireless controller, the gaming gloves and glasses, and of course the console itself and the game _SSBxPSA_.

I solemnly stared at the game box and let out a defeated sigh as I glanced over the clock. 2:50 AM. Well, time to head off to bed.

I went to my room, stripped into my boxers and slipped under my bed sheet cover. Before five minutes I was asleep.

xXx

I didn't know how long I was asleep but my eyelids flickered open, clearing out the blurriness circling before me. Instead of staring at the clear beige color of my room, I stared ahead at a gray wall instead. No, cinder block walls on four sides, with a concrete floor and...I wasn't even in my bed anymore.

I was in a prison, lying on a metal cot!

I leapt off the bed, pushed away the one ply of bed sheet off my boxer-wearing self, "What the—?"

I whispered, looking around. I was still in my boxers. The room felt very cold. Extremely cold. It pierced through me like frosty daggers on saggy skin. What was going on? I tried to process this whole stunt in my head.

Wait… Am I still in the game? I asked myself, though I didn't realize I said it out loud. I probably must have fallen asleep while playing the game. But as far as I was knew, that prison was no stage of SSBxPSA. Maybe a _different_ game.

But was _I_ playing a XEN game?

I reached over to my face. My fingers touched the droopy part of my fatigued eyelids. I wasn't wearing the XEN Gaming Glasses! This was REAL! I wasn't dreaming. I really _was_ inside a cold dark prison cell!

"Oh god." I looked around the cot, panic began to well up inside of me. "What is going on?"

"Greetings, Gamer 824." A voice suddenly filled the prison. "Welcome to your first mission."

Hearing this voice reminded me of my dream, where the XEN could talk to me. And I could've sworn that voice sounded just like her. Only except it was real.

"What?" I gasped.

"My sincerest apologies for pulling you out of your rendered world you so call Chicago." The voice went on, "But you have been specifically chosen to be part of our team of war-fighting, treasure-hunting, sports-enthusiasts members of the League of Video Gaming Legends. And as for your first mission, we wanted to kidnap you and place you right in the middle of our enemy lines occupying a military ship."

I thought I didn't hear her right at first, "WHAT? KIDNAPPED ME?" I screamed, the very thought of it finally began to melt into my brain. "But, why would you do that?"

"It's simple, really." The woman voice said, "We want to create a diversion, while the rest of our team goes through the mission flawlessly. You'll make your escape of course. Starting now."

The door across from me flew open with a spectacular special effect explosion, its startling sound made me scream. At least about five army soldiers waltzed into the room, heavy guns-AK-47s-strapped over their backs.

"Got your weapons handy?"

A sapphire glow shimmered over me. Before I could even blink I was all dressed up in military outfit, holding an AK-47 with a bullet belt strapped across my waist with its end loaded on the gun itself.

The soldiers charged at me. I raised my gun and pulled the trigger. The gun vomited a shower of bullets. All five of them dropped dead.

I was about to cross out of the room when another set of five poured into the room and ambushed me. One raised the back of his gun to strike me. I bent down, dodging, and threw an uppercut before I even realized I did it. The soldier trampled back. Another one charged me from behind. I threw a forward kick at him, pushing him to my bed.

Then I turned around and one soldier pressed his gun barrel against my chest. Either I was brave or stupid, but I didn't stop moving. I quickly grabbed the barrel and yanked it off me as I pivoted him around in 360. The stunned soldier pressed his trigger and his gun vomited bullets everywhere, piercing my enemies' chests and faces.

Once my enemies fell on their pool of blood, I let go off the AK-47, spinning the soldier in place with such ease, his eyes were spinning too. I leapt and pounded a wrestler's double-kick on his stomach. He flew to a wall but not before tripping over one of the men he'd killed. His head slammed on its hard cement and he crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

I stared at the heap of dead people over a pool of blood before me. I felt dazed and gasping for air. Now would have been a great time to pull out my inhaler, but too bad it was in my room's drawer. And last time I checked this wasn't my room but a prison.

I eased my breathing. Then I went and knelt before the fallen soldier I had kicked. I began to search through his military clothes and vest for a gun or any weapon really… when I froze.

His face was all smashed up. Dark blood oozed from his mouth and dripped from his head. Soldier looked wounded all right, but it was his face that struck me. He was human, but he looked... 3D. Like next-gen CG Playstation-like 3D. His features was drawn in a glossy finish with strong contrast shading and brightness. Even the blood glittered with such beauty it made my mouth water.

I jumped back to my feet and backed away. Now I needed my inhaler really bad. I was wheezing so hard my chest was flaring. I stared at the other soldiers I had killed. Giving them each one a good look I now realized they all looked the same. They all looked CG! They were all video game characters!

"Oh my god!" I whispered.

"I something wrong, Gamer 824?"

I heard that female XEN lady talking. I didn't even know she was still there, invisible like that girl machine from Portal. I was so shocked and deranged by this startling revelation, I started laughing hysterically.

"Oh something's wrong all right," I said, "I'm in a video game?"

"My instincts finally tells me you are now aware of the situation at hand."

"Yes. The fact that I am in a VIDEO GAME!" I tried to breathe, "Okay, let's all breathe. Ohh... oh, let me guess which game am I in? Uhh..."

I rubbed the sides of my head with my fingers, searching for, oh I dunno, some answers in my jumbled mind. Wasn't easy. It felt like searching for a penny in a pile of junk.

"...uhhh. Is it Operation WAR? Uncharted V? Watch Dogs and X-Dogs? Just give me something!"

"It's none of the above."

I stared up the ceiling. "What?"

"I'll make it brief. The XEN console bundle you have won is actually your inter-dimensional ticket to automatically join in the League of Video Gaming Legends. The only one among all millions of units created. Which means that as of today you are now part of the league and can now interact with the people of this enchanting world: the CGs. Or as you'd call 'em video game characters."

"Wait, what?"

"With this console you can now travel to any CG worlds that pleases you and on various missions issued by the league to you, all while enjoying the benefits of gaming in your own world."

I could imagine that XEN lady's face behind that voice now. A professional looking 30-something lady with thin glasses and a gloat of a smile over her red lips. "Your definition of brief is not brief." I said bitterly.

"It is such a huge honor to have you onboard, Gamer 824."

"Why do you keep calling me Gamer 824?"

"And why do you keep asking questions? The mission is not going to end itself. Hurry to the end gate, before time runs out."

I couldn't stop my mind from spinning. But I felt the adrenaline pumping in every vein of my body and I couldn't stay still, especially with the giant timer that somehow caught my attention, blinking over to the left corner of the room above me. Now I knew I was in a game. I had no choice but to move out.

I went to the soldier again, yanked a gun off him-a Dessert Eagle-and broke out.

xxx

I ran down a long corridor covered of metal walls and spotted a sharp turn to the right. I took it and suddenly almost ran in front of a group of people holding AK47s, patrolling the area. I skidded back into the corridor and pressed myself hard against the wall, out of the enemies' sights. My chest pounded, as if it was going to explode.

"There's more of them?" I whispered.

"More than you know." the female XEN replied, "The USS memorial battleship has been taken over by the ruthless military operatives the Helghan Empire. I am pretty sure you're familiar with their handiwork."

"No way... The villains from the _Killzone_ series?"

"The units patrolling the areas are currently holding 500 innocent tourists hostage and against their will. The local Police, as well as the FBI, the SWAT Team, even special Elite Task Forces were dispatched to the location less than ten minutes ago, and yet they are unable to make any moves fearing that the enemies will kill these hostages. It won't be a matter of time till all of this ordeal would end with a bloody bang."

"So what's my mission?" I said, taking a peak over the wall. I spotted one of them, their gas-mask face staring straight at me. I pulled away, pressing myself hard on the wall again. Did he spotted me?

"Your mission is to get rid of them." she said, "Quietly. We want to avoid any bloodshed."

I wasn't even paying attention to what she just said. I was too freaked out by the fact that I got spotted. "Is he coming my way?"

"How should I know?"

"Err... You're talking from out of thin air?" I hissed.

I saw the enemy's shadow growing next to me from one eye's corner. He had spotted me and was approaching.

I reached for my pocket and suddenly pulled out a grenade. I stared at it briefly. How did I managed to have it in my pocket when I had nothing earlier? Whatever. I pulled the pin out and tossed it. The grenade made a sound that felt like it hit someone's stomach. I heard an _oof_ sound and next thing I knew the grenade hit the ground and filled the place with a clear white toxic gas, shrouding the place in smoke.

"Here we go!" I screamed and pulled out of my hiding place. Through the smoke I turned to the soldier who almost caught me and threw a spinning kick on the neck. I heard a crack as his body twisted. I quickly followed by grabbing his head and nailed a headbutt at him. He stumbled back with a cry of pain. He pushed himself up from falling and reached for his AK47, but I quickly delivered an uppercut to the chin. Another oof escaped his craked jaws. I snatched the machine gun from his torso, its strap snapped hard. I leveled the barrel to his chest and pulled the trigger. The bullets rattled and the enemy flew back and hit the ground. His chest covered in blood.

The smoke cleared up. The patrolled enemies were now on high alert. They turned their guns at me, running toward me so that they could get a clear shot. They were shouting at each other in a language that I pretty much guessed was Helghan. Didn't those people had a hard time learning it and got stuck with English?

I rushed at them too, adrenaline pumping and boiling in me. I reached a nearby platform, when a thug landed in front of me, a knife firmly on hand. I skidded to a stop again, a gasp left my throat.

The thug swung horizontally. I jumped back. The thug swung a couple more times at me. I pivoted around and seized his armed hand. We struggled. He tried to pull his hand out but I yanked it. The knife slipped from his grasp and hit the ground in a clatter. The thug didn't had time to go for the knife but I did. I snatched it from the ground and turned at him.

He leveled his hand gun at me but I drove toward him with the knife to his stomach. It made a slash. He hurled a cry with a spit of blood. I quickly pulled the blade out. The thug went flat on his face, dead.

I stared frozen at the bloodied knife, realizing what I just did and dropped it.

"RATATATATATATATATATATA!" Kling! Phew! Crack!

Rain of bullets hammered around me, striking on the metal elevated platform I stood on. I dropped to the ground and looked back. The onslaught of assault rifles and submachine guns-wielding Helghast army were shooting at me like crazy.

I helplessly watched bullets ricocheting on the metal, closing in on me. I then noticed the gun next to the thug I had just stabbed. It was one of those STA-18 Pistols from the series.

I quickly went for it and turned around. The pistol shook my arms as I repeatedly pulled the trigger. The shooters all went down one-by-one as bullets spread across the field.

I stood up and stared back at the bodies I just took down. I stared at the pistol I had on hand. I couldn't believe I was actually holding a real STA-18 Pistol from the Killzone series. Me, a gamer not from the gaming world! It looked all CG, but it still felt like a real gun in my hand; bulky, gleaming metal, with a long barrel. A part of me was bursting with epic excitement, but the other part was terrified over the fact.

"I can't believe this..." I managed to speak, "Is this for real?"

"As real as it can ever get." the female XEN spoke, "But you must hurry up. Time is running out."

That female XEN speaking to me like this made me feel like I was experiencing an epic FPS.

"Man, going through a hostage situation is scary."

I finally jumped off the platform, turned to a corner and ran up the nearby stairs leading to another platform with a flat closed lid above me.

I busted the lid open and leapt onto the platform, only to find myself surrounded by a group of Helghan troopers wielding StA-52 Assault Rifles leveled at me.

"RATATATATATATATATATATA!"

Sharp pains ripped through me as I was showered in bullets, front and back. I fell down the stairs till I hit solid metal. Darkness engulfed me.

But for some strange reason, I wasn't hurt. I still could hear. And what I was hearing were footsteps. Footsteps of the troopers approaching me, or the dead me. I was still alive. How was that possible? My clothes were torn by the shower of bullets. Yet none of them had pierced through my skin. Unless I was wearing something else in me.

Now I felt it. As my breathing was gradually increasing. It was something I never thought I had under my combat shirt: a bulletproof vest.

I could hear the terrorists cautiously approaching my body. My eyes suddenly flew open and I let out a sharp gasp. The startled troopers stepped back. I didn't hesitate. I threw a sweep kick at them, tripping them. The surprised enemies let go of their weapons. I pushed up to my knees and pulled one of the assault rifles attached to a trooper. I leveled it to his head and pulled the trigger. His brain exploded in blood and he crumpled to his knee.

I swung the rifle around, my finger tightened on the trigger, forcing the rifle to vomit more bullets at my enemies. And one by one they fell dead with wounded cries.

I dropped the assault rifle and the already dead trooper fell with it. I snapped a fully-loaded one—or I thought it was fully loaded—from a dead trooper. My adrenaline now pumped with energy, I ran up to a metal escape ladder, dangling fifty feet from the ground but eight feet next to the platform where I was standing. I jumped; with one hand grabbing on the ladder while the other hand held on the assault rifle.

That's when I saw yet another armed trooper above me.

The trooper fired repeatedly at me. I thought I'd be dead for sure, but the bullets barely passed by me, ricocheting off the ladder I desperately was hanging on to. Next thing I knew the enemy raised a foot up.

"BUUUNK! BUUUNK! BUUUNK!"

My stomach turned to mush. The enemy was slamming hard on the escape ladder I was in; attempting to break it... and it was working! The ladder was pulling down and was quickly losing its hinges!

"Whoa-whoa! Hey! WHOA! NO, WAIT!" I screamed for him to stop but he wouldn't. Then I made the attempt to leap over the ladder, but he raised his rifle at me and fired. That bullet sound ripped through my spine and almost made me lost my footing. I quickly raised my rifle and aiming at him. I barely had time to pull the trigger.

"BUUUNK!" The enemy delivered a final slam on the escape ladder and it broke!

I screamed, falling with the escape ladder I was onto, fifty feet to absolute death. My eyes spun wildly into a swirling vortex. I was about to hit the solid concrete ground when…

I hit carpet instead.

I rolled over to my side and looked around. I was back in my dorm room. Was all of this a dream?

I noticed the XEN logo on the controller glowing. I blinked. I picked up the controller and twirled it around to examine its finished coat like an engineer about to pry on a piece of equipment. My attention remained on the logo tattooed on the controller. It continued to glow, tempting me to touch it. I didn't even do anything except... Well, the only thing I remembered was setting up the console and tried by failed to make my TV work. Word of advice: never buy a Digital Lifestyle TV again. They suck.

Then I remembered we went to bed and then next thing I knew I ended up in a video game. What were the odds that this button won't transport me to some other game like _SSBxPSA_ for example?

I reached a finger toward the glowing button and felt its embossing glowing touch. Suddenly the TV screen glowed bright, catching my attention. So bright it overwhelmed its entire screen then soon bathed the entire dorm room into a flood of whiteness. I had to shield my eyes shut, until I could feel the bright light fading out.

Everything was quiet. I was afraid to open my eyes to see where I was going to end up in next. But I heard nothing. No abnormal sound like birds singing or the feeling of grass under my knees; or the battle cries of Greek soldiers with the cold chill of winter; or the cheering of crowd and the roaring of race cars rushing past me. I still felt the controller on my grip and the carpet under me.

Finally I opened my eyes. I was still in my dorm room. The TV was off and the controller's button had stopped glowing.

"Ahh…" I breathed a sigh of relief, a hint of a smile crept over my face. Yes, that experience was real and scary. But at the end of the day it was all just a dream. One awesome dream that was quite memorable.

The dream faded from memory, only to be replaced by reality once more. I was not able to make my XEN work. I mean, it works but the TV wouldn't display its graphic. Now I had no choice but to have it plugged in to my sister's TV in her room. And I have to do that once I buy her _Cutie Buck Special._ That's the price I get for wanting to play the XEN.

Ugh, Cutie Buck. I needed a drink.

I dropped the controller on the sofa and went to the kitchen. I pulled the fridge door open and went for a bottle of milk. I grabbed one and closed the fridge door shut.

"OY!"

"Ahh!" I jumped, the bottle of milk slipped my fingers and hit the floor into a million pieces. The pool of dairy crept under my toes, but I didn't care for that. I was face-to-face with Kratos from the _God of War_ series with my jaws hanging open.

"So your cold chest contains cattle milk, but does not contains any Power Urns or Ambrosia?" he barked. His six feet tall giant of height towered over me. His voice exploded with threats. I felt my legs turning to jelly.

"W-we-well, well… I… I… I…" I stuttered. Now I knew what those who crossed path with Kratos felt like before their deaths.

Kratos approached me as I backed away, pieces of the bottled milk crunched under his enormous feet. Did he care if he was bleeding under there?

"…Y-y-you're not supposed to exist." I whimpered.

"SAYS WHO?"

His roar made me lose my footing and I fell on my butt. I crawled back. Kratos drew behind him his two blades. That's when I went wild with terror.

"Oh my god! OH MY GOD! PLEASE DON'T!" I screamed, crawling back faster than I could and shielding my eyes with one arm over my face.

"Kratos, come on mate. Leave him be." A voice spoke.

Kratos looked ahead. I looked back. Now I knew I was NOT dreaming.

Standing behind me were Nathan Drake from _Uncharted V_ and Rafael Rodriguez Jr. aka Rafe from the _Call of Duty Operation WAR_ game. Both of them looked scruffy, had cockiness in their eyes and dashing bright smiles. And both of them had their skins too clean and polished, drawn in glossy finish with strong contrast shading just like the soldiers I fought earlier. I looked over to Kratos and he looked like that too. Clean and beautifully made.

"It's not really his fault we're in his rendered world, y'know?" Nathan said. His voice. He sounded just like…! Excuse me, my mind was spinning there like a blender blade for a second.

"And don't forget, he's one of us now." Rafe said.

Kratos lowered his blades, "You mean one of those people who control people like me?"

"Yeah, a Gamer." Nathan knelt before me, "Is that the term we use to describe you guys? A Gamer?"

I felt my throat dry. "I… I guess." I managed to mutter.

"Grrrr…" Kratos growled. I jumped again. "Well that's not a good thing for me!" HE raised his blades up again, "I HATE being controlled!"

"WAIT!" I screamed, my hands leveled to him to stop, "Kratos, please wait!"

Kratos paused. I quickly shuffled back to my feet and stared at both Kratos, and then at Drake and then at Rafe. Kratos lowered his blades again and the other two men waited for me to speak. To be honest, I didn't even know where to start. How to talk to them. How to let them know that I was dreaming or not dreaming or this was a big misunderstanding and… to be honest, I didn't even know how to talk.

"Are you going to talk or not?" Kratos growled again.

"Well, I…" I hesitated, "Y-Yes. I'm going to talk. But before I do that…" I trailed off. My head wouldn't stop spinning. My frozen eyes didn't leave their sights. Maybe I should call the police or 911… but then what was I gonna say? That video game characters broke into his dorm room?

"Is it just me, or is he not looking well to you?" Drake whispered to Rafe, staring at me with concern. And he should be, because I felt so dizzy I couldn't stay on my feet long.

xXx

The idea of having video game characters in my room, and the fact that I was in a video game just recently, has finally drained reality from my brain. The whole 24 hours of my life has been real. Very real.

But I've learned to accept it. And I knew how.

I picked up my cellphone, went to my laptop and my fingers flew over the keyboard as I searched on Google the XEN console customer support. Then I opened a new tab on my Browser and my fingers typed over a new search "XEN console glitch". A couple more clicks and taps and I dialed the customer support number.

Then I realized the XEN console release date was today. So gamers won't be getting Kratos in their room for at least a couple of hours. Speaking of which, I glanced over at the sitting area at all three game characters. They looked so comfortable on the sofa they were sitting on it was as if they owned the place. Kratos shuffled on his butt, Nathan had his feet on the coffee table, and Rafe...!

"Is something troubling you, Michael?" Rafe asked finally, breaking my thoughts. I quickly realized I was staring at them like a deer caught under the headlights and they glared at me like I was on some loony Meds.

"I'm...I'm sorry it's just that-!" I took one good look at them, "Are you sure y'all not glitches?"

"Glitches?" Nathan frowned, "Why of course not. We're-!"

"-highly trained professionals on a mission to various quests against enemies of our realms." Rafe said as I made key-tones selection on my phone. Customer support should be here any minute.

"Aided by the so-called gamers we've acheived more than 74,687,293 campaigns; 583,927 battles; and at least 36,939 rescue missions including 5,837 involving additional protocols."

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Y'all definitely glitches." I said finally.

"Okay seriously, why would-!"

Nathan was cut off short, "Good afternoon. Thank you for calling XEN Studios. This is Lana. How may I help you?"

Finally, an actual person! "Yes I have a glitch on my XEN Console."

"A glitch sir?"

"Uh-huh."

"Can you describe it?"

I glanced again at the characters on my sofa on cue. "Hairy? Armed with guns and a hint of a smile."

Nathan and Rafe chortled. But Kratos remained stone-faced.

"That's not even funny, guys." I hissed at them and they stopped laughing.

I went back to the phone. The silence on the other line made me think the lady hung up, "Hello? you're still there?"

"yeah I'm-" She hesitated, "...I'm sorry sir. I don't quite understand what you mean." The woman finally said.

"All right, let me make this easier for you to understand, okay?" I cleared my throat and that's when I went on explaining everything, "I got a glitch on my new XEN console and it's kind of a weird one because that never happened to me before. To anyone."

I looked over at the three characters again. "I have Kratos, Nathan Drake, and Rafe Rodriguez sitting on my sofa in my dorm room and I don't know how to send them back. Not lying here. I don't know what to do, ma'am! First I was playing the game SSBxPSA with my friends at the exit thing I knew the lights went off last night. Then I woke up inside a campaign session of Call of Duty Operation WAR, which I almost got killed on, then next thing I knew I woke up with these video game characters in my room."

I noticed Nathan and Rafe pull out an amused smile, "And they're laughing! They think of this as a laughing matter. And it's not!" I let out a heavy sigh after a long good two minutes and a half of ranting, "I just want to get it fixed you know? And since the console is new and under a 90-days warranty on parts and labor, how much is shipping and handling? I'm gonna get it sent to you right a-?"

I didn't realize the lady had already hung up on me until I heard the dial tone hooping in my ear. I stared at the phone in disbelief. "Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me."

I jumped as I felt Nathan's hand rest on my shoulder. If that alone didn't freak me out, Nathan, placing a hand on my shoulder, almost made me keel over like either a fangirl at a Bieber meet-and-greet, or a victim at a criminal house.

"We're not trying to freak you out, but we're not kidding either." Nathan said. His mouth moved and his sharp curious eyes fixed on me like he was an actual person, despite the pixelated 1080p look.

I dropped my phone on the coffee table and went to my closet, "Grab a coat." I said, grabbing on mine and a Henley shirt, "or whatever you bought with you. We're taking a trip."

"Now you're talking." Rafe said, "Yes, let us do that. Our first and most important stop is the Headquarters. We will speak with our super-!"

"We ain't going to no Headquarters. We're going to the Hilton Hotel. We're paying Will and Rich a visit. Let's go!"

I pulled the front door open and I suddenly felt a chilly breeze under me. I had my coat on, and my Henley under it; but I was still under my boxers.

"Right after I put on some pants!" I turned back and rushed back to the closet.

xXx

The door to the hotel suite swung open and there stood Rich Hardwick. He looked like a college-looking dude with a bad boy air in him. He was shirtless and only had on faded designer jeans and skate high tops.

"Ugh…" he groaned, "just a kid. Thought you were a woman."

I stared hard at him. The nerve of this man calling me a kid. He only noticed my confusion-and me staring at the strip of condom he held between his fingers-under the dark scowl I gave him.

He quickly stuffed the strip down his pocket, his face flushed red, "I'm expecting someone."

"On broad daylight?" I asked.

Rich sighed, already annoyed by my presence, "What do you want? I'm busy here."

"…Oh, yeah." I cleared his throat, already relieved of this change of subject. "I need your help. No wait, scratch that, I need your brother's help, since you're obviously busy."

Rich rolled his eyes, But I ignored it. "See, the XEN console you gave to me? It has some technical difficulties. And I'm talking major technical difficulties. I need your tech dudes to come and hel-!"

Rich snorted and broke into a smile, interrupting me, "Technical difficulties? Please. What could be so vexing that it would require our attention?"

I turned to the video game characters who were next to me, but out of Rich's sight. I gave them a nod and they stepped forward to face him. I watched the color in Rich's face drain at the very sight of Rafe, Nathan, and Kratos stepping out of sight to face him.

"Holy sweet guacamole."

Another familiar voice was heard inside the hotel room. It was Rich's twin brother Will. "Hey, Rich." He said "Have you seen my-!"

He stopped talking at the very sight of the video game characters standing behind me. We were staring at each other for I dunno how long, until Will broke the silence with a startled scream. Then Rich's eyes rolled up like a slot machine as his body dropped on the carpet.

xXx

Aiden Pearce stood in the middle of a two-lane street blocking traffic heading toward a shipping center. Looking around, he couldn't help but wonder if this part of Chicago had a ctOS. Heck, he wondered if any of this Chicago had a ctOS.

A car entered the street and stopped, its head lights pierced through Aiden, interrupting his thoughts.

HOOOONK!

Aiden took a step back to the curb, letting the car in. As the car passed by him, Aiden gave the driver an apologetic nod. It was the least he could do for blocking the driver's way right?

The driver stared back at him with a dark scowl. Aiden caught a glimpse of the driver's hand at the window. He scowled under the heavy sunlight pouring its light on the district, trying to make out what the driver's hand gesture meant. A wave back? A thumbs up? No, the thumb was fatter and shorter than the one he just saw. In fact, that finger was longer and stood out as the other fingers remained unseen.

As the driver drove away, it finally dawned on Aiden. That hand gesture was not a friendly one, but a vulgar one. The driver had giver Aiden the finger.

"Hmph." Aiden let out a scoff. He pulled out his phone and went to his Profiler App. He glanced up again, his eyes never left that car with the driver in it. He had made a sharp turn to his right and was easing to park at a curb. There was a fire hydrant by the curb, right next to the parking vehicle. Perfect.

He looked back at his Profiler and pressed the Rupture Pipe button. A gurgling sound was heard. He looked up again. The fire hydrant was taking shape. No, taking size. Growing and growing as if it was about to burst out any second.

He watched the driver leave his car, keys jingling in his hand. He seemed to be happy. Happy to have given Aiden a piece of his mind without harming him. Boy he should've known Aiden could do much worse to people who try to harm him.

The driver slammed the car door shut, and that's when it happened.

The fire hydrant exploded. Its top head and sides snapped and water shot out everywhere. A gush of water slammed the driver against the car, water and steam shrouded the small parking lot. His scream of agony was followed by an ear-splitting slam and the shattering of windows and more screaming from the crowd of people ni the parking lot.

Aiden shut down his Profiler App, pivoted and walked away as the steam cleared to reveal the flooded parking space. Had Aiden stuck around for long, he would've been the driver—the one who gave him that finger—floating on the now blood-infested water, his decapitated torso next to his floating car, his legs floating away, and the side lid of the fire hydrant right next to it, covered in blood.

Should Aiden had stuck around some more, he would've noticed the dragon wings slapping and wiggling from the hole where the fire hydrant used to be, making onlookers scream all the more.

xXx

 **Back at the Hilton Hotel,**

"This is incredible!" Will Hardwick gushed, "Kratos and Nathan Drake… and, and, and Rafe Rodriguez! All in the same room as us? The power of XEN is truly incredible."

I looked at Will with uncertainty. "You knew about this didn't you?" I asked.

Will hesitated, glanced over at the characters in the room before letting out a defeated sigh, "Fine, I knew about it."

"But it's a good thing you've discovered our little secret. Do you wanna know why?"

Rich's statement peaked my interest. But Will turned to him with a chastising look, "DUUUDE!" he roared.

"What?" Rich said, "It's a really good reason."

"And the reason is because of the glitch on the console." Will pressed on, "You know, like Rich said."

Rich gave a snort, "Dude, there's no such thing as a glitch in a console that'll actually summon these guys! And Bayonetta too."

My mouth dropped when Rich said that name. "Bayonetta's here too? Where is she?" I looked over my shoulder, expecting her to either walk into the room on cue. I then glanced over to the bathroom. Maybe's she's taking a shower or a bubble bath. I was leaking with excitement.

"She's not here." Nathan said with a little teasing laugh. He suddenly looked uncertain and turned to Will and Rich, "Wait, she's not really here is she?"

Rich shook his head and shrugged. Will leaned toward me, "Michael," I said, "What I am about to reveal to you will… oh I dunno, probably shock you to the very, very core."

"All right what could be more shocking than seeing video game characters walking around Chicago like they actually belong here in this world?" I asked.

"The fact that we accidentally brought them here in this world." Rich muttered, almost to make me pretend I didn't hear him.

"RICH!" Will threw a scowl at his twin brother who shrugged again. His barking made it official. I _did_ hear Rich said what he said, and it took me a while to process this.

"Wait, what? Is this for real? You caused the glitch?" I asked.

Will gave his brother another dark look. One that said " _you shouldn't have said such thing"_. But Rich returned the glance with shot up eyebrows and stretched-out eyes that said " _Everybody will know sooner or later anyway. So why trying to hide it?_ " Will finally turned back to me.

"Michael. When we designed the XEN console, yes, there was a glitch." He said, "But it was something I have never experienced before in my life." He noticed Rich's presence, "I mean, something _we've_ never experienced."

He leaned in close to me, "The glitch was a portal. It's still is actually."

"It is?" I breathed.

Will nodded, "A portal of greater galaxies beyond our realm, belonging to humans and creatures like us that we only imagined them in our virtual mind and placed them on the market in the form of gaming and—!"

"Oh, you speak too much Will." Rich interrupted him, "Long story short, the glitch is a portal to the video game world. Or as our fellow game characters call it, the CG World. And people like Nathan Drake and Kratos actually exist and we wanted to keep it a secret."

Rich pressed his lips to a thin frustrated line, "Turned out that didn't happen, because some idiot decided to ship out the only console of all 3 million units worldwide to the market, and the one that has to be for the developers—!"

"…ended up in my hands instead." I finished the sentence for him. "As a prize."

There was an uncomfortable silence among us. I let out a sigh, "Look, if you want to take your XEN back and exchange it for another one, I'd be happy to do just—!"

"That's not going to happen." Will said to my surprise, "You now know about the XEN's secret and the video game world," Will noticed the video game characters in the room, "I mean, CG world's existence through it. And like Rich just said, everyone would know about it anyway."

He sighed, "Man, all we wanted to do was to keep the CG world as secretive as possible, so not to freak out our gaming customers and the industry itself."

Now it was my turn to give a snort, "Yeah?" I feigned laughter, "Well, what do you think I've been doing for the past 24 hours?" I fell back on my seat, letting out a dense sigh.

Next thing we heard was a beep. Someone's phone was ringing. Rafe dug one hand in his pocket, fished out his phone and looked at it.

"Oh no." his face ashen.

"What?" Nathan said alertly, "What is it? What's going on, Rafe?"

Will and Rich quickly stood up also. I was last to stand up, uncertain by what was going on.

"Got a text from my men." He looked up at us, "There's a Blood Dragon hiding underground, and it's breaking out."

xXx

The terrifying screams continued back at the Chicago shopping district. Aiden couldn't believe his profiler has actually worked in _this_ ctOS-less version of Chicago. He had popped out a water pipe and the fire hydrant has killed a driver who gave him the finger earlier, submerging his car, his decapitated body and half of the parking lot.

But Aiden never would've imagined the damage he had done. A sharp explosion rocked the district and the screaming intensified. Aiden whirled around, caught by the alerted sound. And that's when he saw it.

A huge Dragon soared over the district, casting its huge shadow over like half of the district fell over a dark cloudy day. It let out a ferocious roar and more people spread out with sheer panic. They were running so fast from that dragon it was like watching a marathon at the Olympics.

Aiden took a good look at it. The dragon had a scaly shell the color of mold, a crest on its head, a sail that went along its back, and a leaf-shaped flap at the end of its tail. It was a creature Aiden Pearce had never seen before in his life. It moved its head back, its sideways slit eyes stared directly at Aiden. Aiden's heart leapt to his throat.

Next thing he knew, the dragon spun around, flapped its wings and moved down. It was heading straight at him.

Aiden pivoted and took off. The shadow grew more dim and dark as the dragon closed in with a frightening hiss. Aiden dropped on the ground just as the dragon rushed past him. Its fetid, raw breath burned against the back of his neck, making its hair stand.

The shadow vanished under Aiden and he looked up, watching the beast flying up high again, its frightening hiss ripped through the autumn city sky as it flew straight for central Downtown.

"Oh my god..." he finally said, his voice a speck of whisper, "Is this creature for real?"

xXx

 **\- Michael: Let's put this game on Pause! We'll take a break and we'll return very soon with more epic gaming adventure.**

xXx

"Wait a minute. Are you sure? I mean you're not pulling my legs here are you?"

I kept asking Rafe Rodriguez the same question over and over again even as we got off the elevator and were waltzing down the lobby. I mean, I should have kept my mouth shut, but I wasn't the only one still trying to process that piece of news he had just delivered to us back at Will and Rich's suite. The twins too were stunned. Heck too stunned that their faces looked like they were some carved up statues.

"Michael!" Rafe growled, "For the ten-thousand times... yes the news is true and I am not pulling your legs." he noticed Will and Rich's shocked stares, "I'm not pulling _anyone's_ legs."

Rich snapped out of reality and turned to Rafe, "What are you talking about? I'm not shocked by the news, I'm shocked by that beautiful bombshell here checking in the hotel."

He pointed us to a lady at the reception. She was tall and slender like a supermodel, her slick ebony hair was cut to a bob shape and she had thin glasses. She was all in a one-suit leather outfit and had some gun-shaped stilettos.

"DUDE!" I shouted, pulling my attention away from the girl, "There a Blood Dragon from the _Skyrim_ game terrorizing the city of Chicago and all you care about is Bayonetta checking in to a hotel suite?"

It took me a moment-a long moment-for me to process what I just said in my brain. I did a double-take as the lady at the reception finally turned to face us.

"Oh my deep-fried goat, it really _IS_ Bayonetta!" I squealed as Bayonetta, in the flesh, and in her sequel form, was approaching. Once again, it took me a while to recognize her from afar, and now it took me a while to notice she was giving me a cold-hard stare.

"What are you still doing here?" she spoke. She sounded hot, but also sounded hard and strict, like a math teacher who was both hot and knew how to teach.

But I had stopped smiling when I heard it. Somehow it felt so familiar. "...waaait a minute. Are you-?"

"Going to get your butt onto your next mission, Gamer 826? Yes I am."

I gasped.

"Now," she went on, "If I were you, I'd pick up my jaws back from the ground and get moving." she grabbed my shoulders and pivoted me around to face the hotel exit and entrance, still pouring with people coming in and going out, "You have a Blood Dragon to slay."

I skidded to a stop, "Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa." I turned to face her and the rest of the group, "Back the Golden Express up! Gamer 826? Blood Dragon? MISSION?"

"You're part of the League of Video Gaming Legends, remember?" she enlightened, "As owner of the XEN console able to connect your world with our own? I made a big speech about it as your mission coordinator. And right now, your mission is to bring down this malevolent dragon our friend Pearce has released."

"Who's Pearce?" I asked, "And I thought you were XEN lady!" I shouted, "You tricked me!"

"Actually we all did." Will said to me. I turned to him and his twin brother, who nodded in agreement. To my wildest imagination, I never would've thought these console designers were in on this too.

"You were in on this too?" I squealed.

The video game cast and the twins all exchanged glances before turning back to me. "Well," Nathan Drake said, "all of us except Kratos."

"He just wanted to destroy you." Rafe added.

I slowly turned to Kratos. His face was glued to mine. Literally.

"...for not bringing back some Ambrosia on your first mission." he growled at me. I could smell the hot putrid smell of his spartan mouth.

"Which by the way, was a fail." Bayonetta added, refocusing on the topic, "But don't worry, none of the hostages were harmed during the making of that mission."

Another explosion startled the hotel guests in the lobby. The noise was coming from the TV screen, showing reports of the Blood Dragon terrorizing the city from the sky. It opened its jaws and a blast of frost shot out of it and struck a water taxi nearby. Half of the river turned to ice. It moved its head toward the other side and shot a fire ball. The ball took out a couple of parked cars in a massive explosion. Watching this report was like watching a high-octane fantasy movie. Only it was not.

"But people _will_ be harmed in this mission." Bayonetta added. Like _that_ realization would make me feel any better.

"How can you do this to me?" I shouted.

"Wh-don't blame us! Blame the XEN!" Will argued, "Remember when we told you we _tried_ to keep the glitch and the portal to both worlds a secret? Well, the League of Video Gaming Legends IS part of that secret too! Our missions is to keep the VG world and the real world in perfect balance. You know, avoid being exposed to many mortals, including you."

Really? I thought as I turned to watch the hotel receptionist tending to other customers as if it was just another business day. Yet one of her customers she had just checked in was Bayonetta, a video game character!

"If this your idea of keeping this whole _video-game-characters-crashing-down-on-Earth_ secret thing gonna work, you better learn to be more away from regular people like us."

"Oh, that receptionist is just an ogre in disguise." Will said before turning to his twin brother, "Dude, don't stare too much at him."

"But if we're going to keep this whole thing a secret," Will went on, "you're going to have to make sure no one knows about the glitch on your XEN console. And the fact that you are working for the League."

I nodded. I didn't bother arguing, even though I knew for sure that with a _Skyrim_ Blood Dragon loose in Chicago, it was going to be hard keeping that secret. Especially when that realization dawned on me that I had left a note to my sister and friends before I left to see the Hardwick twins, explaining just that.

The twins and the video game characters noticed my uneasy silence. "No you didn't." Rich growled under his breath. Before I knew it the group huddled over me. I felt a heat of anxiety boil across the back of my neck.

"Who did you tell?" Rafe shouted.

"Tell me you did NOT tell Sully." Nathan begged.

"Or Zeus of all people." Kratos growled. Bayonetta turned to him. "You're worried about _Zeus_? Have you MET Jubileus?"

I swallowed hard. All good reasons why I should've kept my mouth shut. But at least I didn't meet them. And I was not planning on doing that. I was about to say who it was when I heard a familiar footsteps. Of all the footsteps echoing in the lobby, these ones were fast approaching. Heck running even. Toward me.

I barely turned around when the person crashed on me, his hands clutched hard on my shoulder. It was Terre. And the CG girls and my sister Mikayla were with him.

"Ohh thank goodness you're safe Michael!" he gasped, "Dude listen. You won't believe what's happening in—!"

He looked up at the video game characters before him and his voice trailed off. The CG girls and my sister stood there as if these colorful characters had placed a frozen spell on them with just a simple gaze.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Terre screamed, a high pitched squeal like an 8-year old girl before he crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The CG girls and Mikayla didn't even scream. They were too frozen, immobilized enough to barely utter a sound.

"Great!" Mikayla broke the silence, "Of ALL video game characters walking around Chicago, and NO Cutie Buck in sight?"

I snapped off my trance, "Guys, focus!" I said, not failing to give Mikayla a hard look. She always had something annoying to say, "We got bigger fish to fry here!" I paused, "Well…bigger dragon to fry I should say."

I turned to Will and Rich and the video game characters before me, "And yes, I told my friends what had happened. But they _have_ to know."

The characters wiggled about uneasily. Bayonetta crossed her arms, and Nathan and Rafe glanced at each other. Kratos made a snort. But I had to be honest, their feelings right now was the least of my worries.

"They have to know what the XEN is capable of and they have to know of my mission and this secret organization." I noticed my friends' confusion. Apparently I didn't tell them that last part, "I'll tell you more later. But right now, we have a dragon to slay before it destroys Chicago."

I sprinted down the lobby toward the exit. I burst through the door and stepped out. I stopped from across the street to a section of the Millennium Park and the entire group had followed me there. Heavy traffic congested the two lanes separating me and the park. Onlookers and passerbys had stopped what they were doing to look up the sky, all exchanging fear and wonder. My friends followed their gaze too. And so did I.

That's when I saw the beast. The Blood Dragon was circling above nearby skyscrapers like they were preys to it. That thing was HUGE! Its scaly shell looked rigid with the color of mold and it had a crest on its head, a sail that went along its back, and a leaf-shaped flap at the end of its tail. And like all my fellow game characters here, its entire being was highly defined in 3rd dimension computer graphics. It was as if the beast itself had come straight out of any computer screen.

The dragon stretched out its jaws, a mighty roar ripped the city sky as a frost-colored ball of energy began to form between its sharpened fangs. The dragon swung its head down and the energy shot out of its orifice and struck a line of trees. A mighty explosion ripped the trees off its roots and sent unfortunate victims flying off like shooting stars.

A fresh wave of fear soared through me. Mikayla clutched behind me like a frightened little girl. The CG girls huddled around my big friend Terre-who had finally regained consciousness-like he was their mighty bodyguard to a girl group. Rich and Will could hardly breathe. But Nathan, Rafe, Kratos and Bayonetta—they looked as if a dragon terrorizing a city was an everyday occurrence to them.

"Um, guys…" Candice managed to speak, "…what is that?"

"Have you played _Skyrim_?" Will said, trying to sound composed, "Well, this is it. In real life."

The dragon shot another blast of energy at a line of cars and buses on one lane. The explosion was so powerful, it knocked everyone off balance. Roads jumped and streets crumbled as the fireball swallowed all cars and its passengers to crisp.

"We have to stop this dragon!" I shouted.

"Michael." Carrie began, a hint of doubt in her tone, "You _do_ know that Blood Dragons are impossible to slay in _Skyrim_ right?"

"Oh, speak for yourself, girl!" Terre was practically yelling, "You _do_ know it's impossible for video game characters to walk the Earth, right?"

The characters gave Terre an offended look, especially Kratos whose eyes flickered for murder.

Terre cringed, "No offense guys. Y'all totally awesome!"

"Look," I said, "If the impossible can become possible, then it's possible for this impossibility of slaying a _Skyrim_ Blood Dragon to become possible."

I noticed confusions crossing everyone's faces. "Yeah, that didn't make sense either. But it's worth a try! Come on guys!" I shouted and with every ounce of energy, I sprinted for the busy street. The game characters didn't hesitate. They followed after me.

"Watch out!" my friends and the Hardwick twins cried out in panic as the congested cars started moving toward me without barely paying attention to me, the jaywalker—no, jayrunner—illegally crossing the street.

One taxicab spotted me and pressed on his honk. That alerted a few cars. I pushed past a Mercedes just as the driver pressed on his brake and missed me an inch. The terrified driver screamed at me, but then stopped midway when they Kratos and Bayonetta somersaulting past the lanes. Nathan bounced on car roofs like it was a _Frogger_ game and Rafe slid and hopped across the hoods, a P226 gripped in his hand like a cop going after an insane criminal. More drivers braked their cars and attempted to bark at me, but they all stopped to stare in awe of the game characters at my tail.

Me, I was still running, not paying attention to or cared about the safety of my life. Just as I was about to reach the green field of the park, a bus came charging at me. The tires grazed through the concrete as the driver put on his brake, but I knew he wouldn't make it in time to run me down like pancake.

A wave of terror and adrenaline burst through me as I soared my feet off the ground with a great leap. I landed at the grassy field and rolled down to a complete stop. That was darn close!

I pushed myself up just as I saw Kratos, Nathan, Rafe, and Bayonetta drop down the sky and landed before me. Knowing them, I'd assumed they have climbed the bus over.

My chest was heavy and I could feel my asthma coming back, but I managed to speak, "Man, I wish I was more of an acrobat as you guys."

Nathan shot up his eyebrows, as if he was remembering something, "Wait a second." He pulled out his backpack from his bag. Of all the time I've been with him, I failed to notice he had a backpack with him. He knelt down and fished out a weird insect-shaped device with a white shell. It looked very unusual but I knew immediately what that thing was.

"You'll need this."

"Is that the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device from _Portal_?" I stared at it for a moment then turned to Nathan, "Seriously? How…where do you COME from?"

"Seriously man!" Rafe barked, "Less talking, more fighting!"

He pointed at something behind me. Right! I totally forgot! That something was the Blood Dragon from _Skyrim_! And it had made an earth-shattering landing right in the middle of the Millennium Park!

People took off in a frenzy to avoid the beast. Some were unfortunate and fell to another one of the beast's mighty fireball.

"I'm on it." I gave a quick nod and bolted for the park. For the dragon. I raised the portal gun and pressed the trigger. An invisible blast rang in my ears like an explosive bass boost and a black hole outlined in orange formed before me.

I jumped into it, only to land right in the middle of heavy traffic at East Balbo. I gasped as one car swerved right past me, its tail barely brushed my coat. The other cars following tried to stop. Some attempted to change lanes over one another, but they all ended up all piled. Some were really close to each other, some had their bumper and their sides smashed. What followed were honking and drivers yelling at me again.

Ignoring their complaints I ran down the street, the fear and the adrenaline boosted my legs I thought I was flying. I saw people pushing past me, trying to get away from the dragon. I knew I was close in on the dragon because the faster I ran, the more panicked folks I brushed past.

Finally I caught a glimpse of the dragon's shadow. Then I saw its scaly feet as it landed before the Buckingham Fountain over the distance. Finally I braked. There it stood tall before the fleeing crowd. From where I was standing, I think it was like 50 or 60 feet.

The dragon gurgled out another fireball at another group of people, but they all spread out before the fireball struck the ground. The impact was like an earth-shattering earthquake. Everyone including me flew off balance.

I struggled back to my feet, gazing in awe of the beast. Lemme tell you, I've seen lots of scary things before. But this dragon made my stomach churn in such sickening laxative motion, I thought I was shitting bricks from where I was standing (good thing I wasn't).

I mustered all the little courage left in me and trotted for the beast, the portal gun so gripped in my hand, my knuckles were hurting. There the dragon was, its back and tail faced me.

"ey…" The dragon didn't hear me due to my high-pitched squeal. I cleared my throat and bellowed with a more manly tone, "HEY! DRAGON! YOU!"

The Blood Dragon looked over its shoulder. Its slit eyes locked at me. NOW I was shitting bricks.

"Okay, umm…leave… those…guys…" I glanced around. I was all alone with the dragon. What else was new? Nobody wanted to get killed.

"I mean LEAVE THEM ALONE!" I shouted again.

The dragon growled low. It whipped around, its tail behind him swept and struck half of the fountain, causing water to shoot out everywhere. It took a step, its feet pounded like a mini earthquake under me.

I yanked out the portal gun and shot at the dragon. Nothing happened. The dragon was still there.

It took another step. Then another. I tried shooting the gun again but it did no wonders. The beast was still living large!

A fresh wave of fear assaulted me once more. Because by the time I knew what was happening, the dragon charged. It unhinged its jaws wide and ready to chew me down. I was a dead man.

I screamed.

The dragon took a giant leap right toward me. I took a giant leap back, away from it. My Portal Gun—defective as I thought it was, finally glowed in my firm hand and I don't know what happened but as I jumped back to avoid the dragon I had pressed the trigger on it and a laser shot out of its barrel and struck under me. The gun worked again!

I landed on my butt just as the Blood Dragon dove right into the hole I made where I was standing seconds ago. The large 3D body of the dragon went pouring into the hole to my utter amazement.

Then the dragon came back again… shooting out from another portal! I shuffled back and pushed myself up when I noticed that other hole—that other portal where the dragon was coming out, was right behind the first portal hole!

Before I knew it, the dragon unhinged its jaws and ran its head straight through its large body, impaling itself. The beast roared in pain. Its unhinged jaws weren't helping either because as the more it was clapping its mouth and struggling, the bigger the hole it was making on the stomach it had impaled itself onto.

I didn't realize I did this by mistake: shooting two portals without thinking, and allowing the dragon to go into the farthest one and impale itself in the stomach by going through the other portal next to the first. Can you say Random Genius!

I aimed the gun at the struggling beast and shot at the second portal. The portal closed, snapping the dragon's neck off. Automatically the first portal closed also and snapped off the rest of its body… well, just the lower side and the head. The upper chest part could've been lost in the abyss.

The dragon's head bounced up and down, spewing blood and oozing it out in the most unusual places. The lower part of the beast remained lifeless. Finally after almost a minute of flopping, the head settled. The dragon's eyes stared at me with a throbbing gloom, an empty stare… and the beast was now dead.

The silence in the city suddenly broke by the roar of exclamation and cheers. Crowd of people rushed to the fountain, coming toward me. Before I knew it I was carried broad shoulders and rejoicing hands. I high-fived dudes and hugged dudettes. They were so happy, so ecstatic and blown away by what had just happened. That I have slain a dragon!

They weren't the only ones. The police, the ambulance, and firefighters came along. Then five minutes later, news trucks pulled up, releasing dozen of reporters. And finally my friends came to me.

"You did it, Michael!" Terre exclaimed, wrapping his heavy arms around me in a bear-crushing hug. I barely could breathe with that hug.

"I can't believe you slain a dragon!" Carrie squealed as she and her friends surrounded me. "A dragon!" she squealed again. Quickly her friend Candice, and my crush, swooped in and gave me a peck on the cheek. I could've sworn my face had turned beet red and flushed with coyness.

"Dude! You rock!" said both Will and Rich, the designers of the XEN. They were so happy, it was as if they thought the whole world was going to die tonight. And I'm not gonna lie, that was my exact same thought too.

And finally I saw them: the video game characters—Nathan Drake, Kratos, Bayonetta, and Rafe Rodriguez. They approached me and gave me hugs.

"You did it man! You slain the beast," said Nathan.

"Without even the need of my help." Kratos said with a smile, "I'm impressed."

And that's when I heard everyone in that street shouting my name. Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael!

"I can't believe it..." I said, muttering to myself, "I actually slain a dragon! In Chicago! On broad daylight! In reality!"

"Be proud of this achievement kid." Added Rich, "You saved Chicago! Too bad we don't actually give away trophies like we do in PlayStation games, but still..." he glanced over at the dragon carcass, "Slaying a dragon is going to be the least of our problem now."

Hearing this made a knot in my stomach. I looked at Rich, and his twin brother and finally glanced over at the remaining video game characters.

"Wait... What? Are you saying there's gonna be more problems like this in the future?"

xxx

Up on the top of a building, Aiden Pearce watched the crowd at the Millenium Park. The slain dragon was being taken care off by authorities. Witnesses were talking to news reporters. Victims were being treated. But Aiden had his attention set on the young man who had slain the dragon with that Portal gun of his.

Aiden's phone suddenly rang. He pulled it out and saw the readout. His heart skipped a beat. Unknown caller

He touched the screen and pressed the phone to his ear, "What do you want? I don't have time to play games."

"Do I look like the type of person to play games, Pearce?"

"You're not a type of person at all."

Somewhere in the Underworld, Demon Lord Diablo gazed back at the blazing bonfire of the Underworld.

"You're right, Pearce." Diablo muttered, "I am not."

The flames casted more shadows than light, but Diablo didn't mind the scenery. He was used to it. Right now though he was getting peeved. His white hot eyes stared feverishly at a reflection of Aiden Pearce behind the bonfire. The young vigilante was on his phone and appeared to be troubled. And Diablo was not liking this.

"You're not thinking about abandoning your mission are you?" Diablo growled.

Aiden let out a sigh, "Of course not."

"Then you better stay focus. Or else!"

Aiden licked his dry lips. That "Or Else" phrase he just heard on the other line really tightened his heart and made his mind spin. He hung up his phone and stuffed it into his pocket, his attention returned to the scenery down at the Millenium Park.

"You can't control me, demon." Aiden muttered, "I alone can control my destiny."

 **xXx**


End file.
